The Snare
by Nokomarie the Snake
Summary: Mushin is running for his life and Sesshoumaru finds that being a Daemon Lord isn't all it's cracked up to be. The mayhem continues as things heat up on both sides of the well in this sequel to Dogs in Tokyo. Disclaimer: disclaimed I do not own Inuyasha.
1. Prologue

Prologue,

There is an old legend in Japan concerning three generals that were opposed to each other in conflict. The legend states that they consented to be brought together to try peace talks for the good of all. When questioned about their intentions by a certain old Buddhist monk, who was held to be very wise, they were all willing to answer and revealed their true natures in doing so.

The monk likened the supremacy over Japan to a wild bird and asked what would they do if they caught it. They all answered that they would keep it safely in a cage and tend it so that it should sing.

The monk questioned, "What would you do should the caged bird fail to sing?"

The first general answered in the form of an impromptu poem; "Feed it sweet cakes and honey. For it encourages song. To fill the bird's throat" It made a good Haiku. His retainers laughed and applauded him for that.

The second general answered, "If it fails to sing then it is a war bird and I should train it to my hand and hunt with it." His men gave an approving roar.

The third general was the youngest and kept his eyes lowered as he toyed with a knife instead of replying. The question was repeated. Finally, he spoke, "What would I do if the caged bird fails to sing?" He lifted his eyes, which were wide and very dark, "Kill it."

There was silence in the room after that and there was no further talk of peace. Hostilities resumed within the week. Within two years time, the first two general's heads were on display in front of their former homes and Oda Nobunaga, for that was the name of the third general, turned his attention to the next item on his list: to find and kill that monk.

o.o.0.o.o.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The cloudburst in Kamakura that November night could scarcely have been more opportune if it had tried. The mud on the forest track was full of loose pebbles and small rocks which shifted painfully around the traveler's feet and threatened to pull his woven grass sandals off altogether. His was a hunched figure wearing a grass raincoat and broad straw hat as he labored with the help of a sturdy traveler's staff up the hill between the trees. Reaching the top of the slope, he lifted his head up, tipping the brim of his hat and letting off a stream of water to look across the poorly-kept lawn to the dilapidated temple beyond.

From where he was standing he could see that the flight of stone steps marking the official way up to the front of the building still remained empty. He would have sighed in relief if he had any breath to spare, but he had come straight up the side of the mountain from the highway, slipping on the tall grass and getting slapped in the face by wet leaves. He still had yet to fulfill his abbot's mission and he knew that those steps would not remain empty for long.

There were no lights showing in the building and the visitor didn't even try the main entrance. Instead, he went around the corner of the east wing and five wall panels down along the side veranda. He felt around the edge of the fifth panel, first at shoulder height with increasing puzzlement and then with a self-disgusted grunt at hip height and gave a good shove to a hidden catch. He had been a young boy when he had been shown this secret entrance and much shorter. The panel slid back, revealing the darkened interior of the temple. "Mushin-Sama…Mushin?" his voice came back to him in a series of eerily warped echoes and hisses making him remember old rumors of the visits of youkai and unnatural death that pervaded the place.

A faint noise from outside brought the young man back to his urgent business. "Oshou Sama?" he said as loudly as he dared. His eyes caught a flash and he realized that it was a faint gleam of light outlining the edge of a curtain hanging from an arras thatwas in front of him, blocking his view of the main altar.

A sudden rumbling growl caused him to jump back. But then it was repeated in a gurgling buzz that put him in mind of his paternal grandmother's earth-shattering snores and so he jerked the curtain aside. Mushin was nowhere in sight but the altar area glowed with shielded lights; a bright flare of which illuminated the coffered ceiling with its painted birds and flowers.

The acolyte quietly removed his sandals and rain coat and hat revealing the netted bundle of a dry raincoat and hat on his back. He set the sandals down, toes pointed outwards and lay the other things next to them. He looked back outside for a moment but could make nothing out over the fury of the storm and so pattered on bare feet across to the sanctuary where the snores seemed to be emanating from.

He glimpsed a foot on the floor protruding past the verge of the altar. With bated breath he edged his head around the corner into the light gleaming from presence lamps to view Mushin, the temple priest, dead drunk with a pair of saké bottles next to him. The young man's shoulders slumped, only to stiffen again as he heard a rumor of noise from outside the main entrance. They had made the journey up the steps in all this rain?

In an instant, he was shaking Mushin's legs by the ankles and using them to haul him bodily out of his inappropriate nook. Mushin gave a bleat like a sheep but suddenly sat up and caught his assailant's neck in a noose of large and uncomfortably tight prayer beads.

"What have you done with the saké ?"

"I haven't done anything thing with the saké . Master Mushin, it is I, Yori-Kun, you know me. I've come at the bidding of Abbot Motouji. Nobunaga's men have arrived looking for you. I am to get you out of here secretly."

Mushin belched uncomprehendingly. The acolyte twisted his neck over his shoulder and fancied he heard a shout from outside beyond the drumming of the rain on the roof. He grabbed at the monk only to be firmly resisted and was unexpectedly yanked forward fully into the light that shone down from the lamps behind the altar.

"Yori. Yes, I see now. I thought you were someone else. But, you are older than you were; your voice is breaking. You haven't been visiting much, not much at all." The old monk's voice sounded vaguely aggrieved, like that of a querulous old man.

Yori stared back at him in dismay; Mushin was an old man. His once thick hair was thinning and his cheeks sagged with a spider's web of fine purple veins. Gone was the stout, seemingly indestructible, old reprobate. Oh, the bulk was still there but only an echo of the strength. He was drawn back to business by distinct sounds of arrival from outside the front gates. Even as he opened his mouth to repeat his explanation the wooden bar blocking the door grated in its socket, turning up before being stopped by the iron pin holding it down. The door thumped, rattling on its hinges. Another shout was audible.

Mushin stiffened, "Whose?" he asked, voice suddenly crisp.

"Nobunaga's"

Mushin wasted no time upon hearing that and scrabbled to his feet using Yori's shoulder for support. They made their way over to the alcove, hidden in the darkness behind its arras. The thumping at the door was brisker now and the iron pin was quickly being jiggled out of place.

"The jig is up." Mushin muttered and felt around for a shelf from which he produced a pair of sandals and loaded bag.

As Yuri wriggled out of his net to pass over the hat and rain coat to him he could hear the gurgle of a bottle being tilted, "You are drinking at a time like this?" he hissed in frustration.

"Can you think of a better time?" was the imperturbable reply and Mushin was ready, shrugging on the grass coat and hat even as he gathered up a stout stick. They had the panel closed and were stepping off of the verandah into the sopping long grass as the pin finally gave way at the temple door and let the intruders in.

The escapees made their way along the edge of the veranda of the temple building to where the eaves of the forest nearly touched its gabled roofs. There they would leave fewer tracks and have a shot at the open-cut maintained up-slope by the temple. At one time that had been the main road through the area and built for defense against enemy attack. It was just wide enough for one horse to go through but had fallen into neglect over recent years as folk preferred to use the new road into town. Hopefully the warlords troops would overlook it.

They had just made their way onto the narrow stone track when a smell of smoke reached them bringing them to a halt. That could mean only one thing and Mushin groaned as he looked back in the direction of the old temple that had been his home for so long. He almost headed back in that direction but Yori caught at the back of his robes and hauled him on their way, "Such an old building as that could have gone at any time, Sama. You know this. Maybe Buddha in has mercy allowed this happen now, after you left the building."

Mushin relented and stumbled after him but kept anxiously sniffing the air even as they moved further away in an attempt to discover how much of the structure was involved. There were few clues as the downpour continued to obscure everything even protected as they were under the trees. They were soon hard put to keep their footing on the rain-slicked stones and the slow journey down mountain was passed in silence.

The rain had slowed to a drizzle when they reached the rear outbuildings of Yori's own temple, Raikoji. Mushin was moving very slowly and with a limp as he had made an unfortunate misstep off the stone path and landed in a ginkgo bush. Yori wearily pushed open the rustic gate of the grass fence and led the way to an old gardener's hut. He saw to getting the monk seated at a small brazier and, at a stumbling trot, headed off to tell his abbot of his guest.

He paused outside of the abbot's chambers to straighten his clothes and grew still at the sound of voices in the room beyond, "It is very unfortunate that your overlord should have chosen this particular time of year in the calendar. If he had sent to inquire we could have saved him much trouble and inconvenience."

"Don't tell me he isn't there."

"I have no way of knowing, on such a night as this, whether Mushin-Sama is present at the Hotiji temple or not." Abbot Motouji's voice sounded aggrieved. "But this is his traditional season of retreat so he may not be. Tomorrow is the day designated for the weekly delivery of goods and the delivery boy could have borne your message with him to leave with the supplies. Mushin-Sama would surely find it with the supplies and come down mountain to meet with you."

"No matter," rumbled the other, "I have already sent men up to fetch him."

"Ah, I see."

"Perhaps you do not Sama. This Mushin has been declared an enemy of the state. I am to bring him in to face charges of sedition."

"I am sorry to hear that. You say you come from the Emperor? Did he send any messages?"

"I do not directly represent the Emperor. I come from Oda Nobunaga, his conquering general."

"I see, it would have grieved me not hear from my young cousin. I must send him a letter."

"The Emperor is your cousin?"

"I have that honor, yes; through my mother's side. You see…"

The abbot's visitor was not to be further enlightened as to the abbot's relations (and there were many) at that time as Yori was unsuccessful in stifling a laugh. He was forced to turn it into a cough as the screen he was sitting beside was pulled open and the abbot looked out. Yori kowtowed deeply enough to knock his forehead against the floor and came up pink-faced. He turned a look of wide-eyed innocence at the abbot's visitor and kowtowed again in his direction, taking in the gilt edged armor and the crested helmet sitting on the floor beside him.

"Well, Yori, what is it?"

"I am sorry to interrupt, Sama. But I felt I must tell you that the old gardener fell into a gingko bush and broke his lamp, spilling its oil, but he is back home now and safe."

The abbot sighed sadly and remarked, "I'm afraid the old fellow had best retire. He's getting past all this wandering in the dark on such a night as this. Please see to his comfort, Yori. You did well to relieve my mind. I shall visit him anon."

As the screen slid shut again, Yori could hear the rumbling tones of the abbot's visitor, "You are concerned over an old gardener, Sama? That is unusual."

"He's such a very good gardener, you see. If the weather had only been clement, I would have taken you on a moon viewing of the garden. We have such very fine views. You say you are from the Emperor?"

"No, Sama, I did not."

Yori stifled his giggles and fled.

ooOO0OOoo

It was much later; close to dawn, when the abbot finally made his way to Mushin's side. By that time the pains from Mushin's assorted injuries and exertions were making themselves felt along with a sudden sense of hopelessness. He lay back on a makeshift futon of hemp bundles in an uneasy sleep. When it had come to it, he had been as unable to defend his temple from harm as the childish Miroku had been unable to defend his own father against the air rip in the palm of his father's hand. The loss of his old home went down hard. 

Abbot Motouji strode across the damp temple garden wrapped up tightly in his robes and his thoughts. He actually was fond of moon-viewing and was frequently to be found wandering his garden at night but tonight the scudding clouds had no power over him.

He had left the troop commander with a couple of the so inclined young novices for comfort and then made strict recommendations that any messengers be directed to cleanse themselves before the brass images of the Yakushi trinity with a few thousand sutras before being allowed into the temple proper to make report.

That, the abbot reflected, should hold them up for a few hours but he was still faced with the trouble of what to do with his old friend. With a sigh, he stopped by a gingko bush near the center of the garden and considered it. It was most decoratively placed near the path he trod upon and had pleased his eye many times. He tested the verge; might one trip there?

He turned to the sturdy young monk that accompanied him with a hanging lamp and beckoned him closer. He studied the youthful face gravely and spoke in the manner of a loving teacher to his pupil, "Have you studied the sutras that command us to speak truth, Rengyo?"

"Yes, Sama."

"Thus you understand, that all truths must be true and verifiable when spoken by one of high estate."

"Yes, Sama."

"Then I will enlighten you further; those of low estate need never speak of some occurrences at all, even when questioned by the most stringent of methods."

The monk blinked, this was news to him.

"Kindly regard that bush. Tonight our doddering old gardener was out in the storm and stumbled off the path into it, breaking his lamp."

The young man obediently turned his gaze, "Sama, I am sorry, but I do not see any evidence…"

Quicker than it can be told the venerable abbot used his staff to neatly hook his servant's legs out from under him and precipitated him into the bush, spilling the oil of his lamp to flare briefly before extinguishing itself in the wet grass. "Now you do." He said gently. "Such is part of the nature of truth."

The young monk, Rengyo contemplated this statement as he disentangled himself from the embraces of the gingko bush and, indeed, considered some other truths as well. When he had regained the path he studied the retreating back of his abbot and smiled however; Abbot Motouji was one to follow and his lessons worthwhile. With a light toss, the now ruined lamp was cast aside; obviously, the old gardener had abandoned it when he fell.

OoOO0.0OOoo.

Meanwhile, back at the Higurashi Shrine…

It was full dusk when the truck arrived in a light drizzle. It backed its way up the short driveway at the shrine's rear entrance and came to a stop behind the family's elderly Nissan, which was still up on blocks.

Higurashi-San was alone in the kitchen after seeing the caterers and the members of the remarkable Nakamura family of the Kabuki-Za off.

The kimono lady had disappeared along with the bulk of the wedding guests but the Nakamuras had stayed behind stowing their instruments and helping the caterers and their crew to take down the tables and pack their van. They were so efficient and so likely to break into song or act out a brief sketch that it was impossible to begrudge them the leftovers which they all ate with such gusto.

Bandi-Sama had pulled out an old Chinese lute and plucked its strings as he sang an old wandering tune which seemed half-familiar to the Higurashis. The story referred to derring-do, adventures and romance. It involved mythical creatures and a great quest which ended joyfully and yet, left the listeners dissatisfied somehow, as if the story was yet unfinished.

After that, Jijii-Chan, Jukuryo and Souta had adjourned to the shrine offices to confer about something and Higurashi-San had found herself alone in the empty music pavilion. She had put out the lights and wandered up the weedy path that led to her own kitchen door; there to survey the stale remains of breakfast and take a look at the living room where the stand and kimono wrappings were scattered about amid a sprinkling of twigs and wilted petals still on the floor where they had fallen from Rin's kimono. She slowly cleaned them up.

She was just pouring tea for herself in the kitchen when the rumble of the truck broke into her pensive musings and caused her to drop her cup in the sink. The kettle was smacked down by the side of it as Higurashi-San took in the image of the small box van rapidly backing up her driveway. She gave a squawk and bolted out the door as the van stopped within scant inches of the back of her disabled Nissan.

The passenger door opened and she recognized Jaken as he hopped from the seat to the ground and gave her a stiff little bow, "This delivery is compliments of Sesshoumaru-Sama. He told me to tell you that Inuyasha could explain it." With that he opened the side panel of the van and, with the help of the driver began unloading the van of its contents and bringing them into the kitchen.

Soon, every surface in the kitchen became loaded with chafing dishes and blenders, a variety of vases of different sizes, a silverware set in a mahogany case, a bin full of onions and another of potatoes. The vegetables puzzled Higurashi-San very much and she was turning them over in her fingers when Jaken came in pulling an upright vacuum cleaner and a crumpled five-gallon plastic bucket. Except for the bucket, all the items were in very good condition. None of it was boxed, however, and Higurashi-San could not make herself think that any of it was new.

A last load of folded tablecloths and placemats was thumped down on the kitchen table and Jaken and his driver were bowing their way out the door.

"But, Jaken-San please wait!"

Jaken did not wait but, rather, tipped his hat before scrambling into the van in a hurried manner.

"Jaken-San!"

The van was already rolling down the driveway even before it had its lights on and Higurashi-San returned to the kitchen to survey the welter of things that were there. After a moment's thought she located her purse underneath the pile of tablecloths and fished around in it. She extracted a hand-written note with a phone number on it and went over to the phone to make her call.

A cool voice responded on the other end, "Moshi-moshi."

"Sesshoumaru-Sama," Higurashi-San began without preamble, "Inuyasha and Kagome are not here. Perhaps you could tell me why I appear to have the contents of your pantry sitting in my kitchen?" There was a long silence on the other end of the line.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Inuyasha awoke with the birds during their pre-dawn clamor. The time of day when the sun's approach, no matter what the time of year, warms the earth's atmosphere and causes a breath of wind that makes the old trees creak and the grasses wave. There is no light from the sun at that time and it seems that the night still rules and dawn is still far off. But the wild things know otherwise and often wake at that time only to resettle themselves into whatever warm nest they have made and return to sleep half alert and waiting for the birds to have fed.

He'd had his fill of sleep, however, in the weeks he had spent in modern times and crept away from Kagome's side to go out to scatter the birds from the lightening fields of the village in a swooping rush. He was thorough. He tore about from dike to ridge to rill and rocky stream and finally into the forest that was named for him to settle himself in his own tree on the verge of an outlying spinney of woods. Not even the cheep of a bird was to be heard any longer near the new hewn stalks of rice grain. He tucked an arm beneath his head and rested, cradled within the limbs of the tree and let the wind rock him back into a half doze in comfort.

No other crook in any other tree had ever held quite the same angle that suited his back so well as the one in this lightning-blasted oak at the edge of the village. He had searched for this tree in Kagome's time briefly but had found no trace of it in the gardens and city streets about the shrine. He rather thought it stood where the local police box would be in the future on a street corner near the modern shrine but then he had only had the Goshinboku to orient himself by. He couldn't be sure, so much was gone and replaced by other things there, but he still rested upon the roof of the police box upon occasion when he wanted to keep watch on things.

A pity, but what was to be expected after five centuries? It was amazing the Goshinboku still existed, let alone the well, or the shrine. He grunted and shifted slightly, slitting his eyes to follow the progress of some bedraggled traveler leading a footsore horse along the top of one of the dikes in the rice fields. He continued to mull about the difference between Kagome's time and this with a mild curiosity, folk usually didn't arrive so early.

In Kagome's time that traveler would be arriving by means of a metal cart and would not be nearly so tired. The horse, he supposed, would be well out of it, eating its head off in some stable somewhere, and the traveler would have better luck getting breakfast than he was likely to have in the village this morning. Yesterday had been Inuyasha's wedding at the shrine in Kagome's time but it had also been the Inari thanksgiving rice festival in his. The village was very unlikely to be stirring this early considering that the vast majority of its inhabitants had staggered into bed just a few short hours ago.

Inuyasha smirked reminiscently; part of that had been his own doing. Slipping back through the well to the shrine after delivering Kagome to the village and seeing that there was a bonfire had been the work of a few minutes. He had stolen through the darkness to the rear of the music pavilion where the traditional yoked casks of wedding saké were being kept and shouldered a full pair.

He had paused only briefly to peer into the darkness of the empty music pavilion. It had been crowded with his own wedding guests only a few hours earlier. All was dark and still within. It smelled of food mixed with saké and excitement and far too much youki. He wondered what had gone on in his absence, but it all seemed peaceful now. The walls were intact at any rate, which seemed a good sign. The banquet furniture had been folded and placed by the walls ready to be returned to storage in the morning. The temple drums and gong once more occupied the central space by the southern side of the building and the floor had been swept. So, whatever the upshot of the wedding had been, it can't have been too disastrous.

Rather than attending to much of his wedding feast he had been otherwise occupied with his new bride, making sure the marriage was fully consummated. Sesshoumaru and Rin had stepped in to cover their absence from their places at the head table. It occurred to him that some might have seen this as a breach of courtesy, if they had noticed, but he really didn't care. It had been the right thing to do at the time. Too many interfering modern youkai hanging about trying to prevent the wedding from being complete.

"Nosey old gits." he'd muttered as he turned away. He was only mildly surprised to see his black wedding Haori with its silver mon of three running dogs and the two top layers of Kagome's wedding kimono folded ostentatiously over the back of a chair in plain sight. So they had expected him back after all. With a shrug, he pulled the haori on and bundled the kimono layers into the front of his kosode making a large bulge. It took a bit of creasing to get it jammed in but he finally crushed the precious silk fairly flat. He'd padded through the darkness of the shrine grounds to the small gate that led to Kagome's house and carefully eased the yoke down. There was a half-formed plan in his mind to go to the lit kitchen window and let Higurashi-San know where he and Kagome had gone. It only seemed fair.

A silver car was pulling up the drive and Inuyasha stopped at the gate to watch. The outside light flicked on and he could see the silhouette of Kagome's mother holding the screen door to the kitchen open. Obviously, the visitor was expected. The car pulled to a smooth stop and the driver's door opened. The air was positively reeking of Sesshoumaru's youki as he stepped out.

Inuyasha had drawn back with a frown at that. What business Sesshoumaru could have at the shrine at that hour of the night he neither knew nor cared but he had no interest in seeing him again that day and he had re-shouldered his spoils and left. His return to the past had driven the incident out of his mind until now. Kagome, resplendent in the in the shimmering folds of most of her wedding kimono, was in the center of the village in a squealing group of girls. She was hugging Sango and trying to shove one of her remaining layers on over Sango's clothes.

Sango, for her part, had blushed and protested but didn't really resist as the robe settled around her. She ran a wondering hand up the silken sleeves and held her arms out to look at their extravagant dimensions. Miroku stood off in the flickering shadows cast by the village bonfire next to Kaede with a round-eyed Shippou perched on his shoulder. The great kodo drum at the center of the village was just warming up, throbbing out its own heartbeat accompanied by shrill whistles to call all the people of the area in to join in the harvest celebration.

Only Shippou had turned his head and noticed Inuyasha making his way through the trees with his burden. He jettisoned himself unnoticed off of the monk's shoulder and scampered through the leaves to hop cheekily up on one end of the yoke in the one spot best calculated to overbalance it and looked Inuyasha over.

Inuyasha had expected some such trick and had been ready to shift his grip so very little was sloshed. Nothing was going to upset him that night however, and he spoke fairly pleasantly, "If you make me spill my wedding saké I'll tell Kagome just how old you really are."

Shippou grew still and glared at Inuyasha, "I'm only a young child," he said in his husky voice. "Look how small I am."

Inuyasha drew to a halt, balancing both the yoke and the kitsune's weight easily with one hand, "Yeah, you really are one short little fuck, ain't you. But I can also see a fox spirit who has grown old enough to transform into any shape he chooses."

Shippou's eyes grew wider and greener, glittering in the starlight under the trees. A tear seemed to collect in one corner and his expression was tragic, "Kagome knows I'm an orphan." The tear seemed on the verge of running down.

"So am I. Tell someone who cares." Inuyasha resumed walking, "One thing Kagome's time has is a lot of books. Kagome believes what is in those books and I have been reading up. So, it won't just be my unsupported word from now on. I know how to take you down now, you little crap."

"You'll regret it if you do." Shippou hissed.

"You will. She accepted me."

"I'm older than you! So, nah!"

"Oh, so you admit it?"

But Shippou had hopped away and was already transforming. A _'poof' _and Inuyasha had been faced for a splintered instant with a mirror image of himself, wedding clothes and all. An image which spun and ran down the path to the village, gaining momentum on the slope of the hill, fox tail waving behind and voice lifted in a whoop.

Inuyasha cursed and started loping down the hill trying to keep the saké level. He really couldn't go all that fast and by the time he arrived Shippou/Inuyasha had been well into a farcical chase of a small goat around the village center much to the delight of the youngsters and the scandal of the respectable elders.

Inuyasha drew up in a puff of dust next to a startled Miroku and snarled, "Here," as he rapidly unloaded the yoke onto the surprised monk's shoulders. Miroku staggered under the unexpected weight but bore up gamely in consideration of his friend's reason for hurry.

Shippou was just in the midst of a bellowing dive at a bunch of giggling and shrieking children when Inuyasha's hand had closed firmly around his tail and his career as a hanyou was brought to an abrupt and painful halt. Inuyasha's other hand had taken hold of the tail of the goat and the two miscreants had been held miserably still as Kaede stalked over.

"Shippou, I knew it wasn't Inuyasha." She looked at the feebly struggling kitsune with an eye like a gimlet, "What were you thinking? You could have overset the food tables and the women have been gathering things for days for this." The goat bleated at that moment and she signed Inuyasha to release it.

Shippou now dangled morosely from the hanyou's grip, only his head up. The crowd was heading back to the bonfire and Miroku, who was calling for heating containers for the saké . That was now garnering a good deal more interest than a misbehaving kitsune chasing a goat. People were starting to clap in time to the Kodo drum and soon there would be dancing. Shippou dropped his head. "It was just a joke, he muttered to the beaten ground some distance beneath him. Being upside-down that long was starting to make his eyeballs itch, "How did you know? Was it my tail?"

"No, not the tail. Remember I don't see too well." Kaede had been calm and unimpressed by the kitsune's apparent helplessness. "Inuyasha never did chase animals for amusement even at his worst. He always just caught the animals on the sly and ate them," she paused as if for emphasis, "raw."

Shippou had drooped and just let himself dangle from Inuyasha's fist, feet and hands reaching towards an unreachable earth, ears buzzing with too much blood to the head. A few more minutes of this and a blackout would be possible. Shippou held his breath in an attempt to bring it on.

Kaede continued remorselessly, "Now, until you are prepared to catch and eat the animals you chase while pretending to be Inuyasha, I would hold off, if I were you." Kaede gave one more look at the miserable kitsune and tapped Inuyasha's wrist. Inuyasha knew what she wanted and ground his teeth together. 'What the hell was the good of finally having the rosary off when he couldn't act to please himself? And who said he ate goats raw?' His hand tightened for an instant and then relaxed.

Shippou dropped and rolled to cling to Kagome's skirts as she made her way to Inuyasha's side. She stooped and picked him up, not objecting as the diminutive kitsune snuggled tightly to her side for a moment. He didn't stay there for long however, one good sniff was enough for him and he pulled back to stare at Inuyasha and sneeze ostentatiously before hopping off.

He played with the village children much of the night, Inuyasha could see him occasionally, chasing in and out of the scattered dwellings from where they were sitting with Kaede. Sango and Miroku sat with them for a long time drinking in the breathless account Kagome had given of the events leading up to her wedding.

They had their own news, that they now lived in the field shack and that Kohaku split his time between there and doing odd jobs for Kaede. He was a quiet boy around adults and had only scattered memories of the past years but things seemed better that way. He had stopped by them briefly to greet them but had been called by a companion and quickly gone off again.

So the evening had rolled off well and Kagome had voted for staying in Kaede's hut for old times sake. Inuyasha hadn't minded beyond insisting on getting rid of the wedding finery. He now dozed in the tree in his accustomed clothes and dangled a foot lazily off of the branch.

He refused to stir as he heard the soft clanging of brass rings and gave himself up to the rocking of the branch as Miroku drew to a halt beneath him. A moment later a golden pear shot up through the branches to be caught midair in Inuyasha's clawed hand.

"Good morning, Inuyasha. I trust you rested well."

Inuyasha took a couple of bites of pear before answering, "What's up, Bouzu? You're bringing me breakfast?"

"Might as well, I was awake at dawn in time to see you clearing the rice fields of birds. That's something I've been doing. But it was good I was home, for our house is the one closest to the fields and we had a visitor."

"That horseman?"

"The same. It seems he is a merchant who had some bad luck a few days back."

With a swing of his legs, Inuyasha dropped out of the tree to land in front of Miroku with the pear in his mouth. He bit through and dropped the pear into his hand before speaking with a full mouth, "So? Why come out and get me? I take it he's still at your house."

Miroku shrugged and looked away, "Well, the party he ran into was a military band, heading for a small temple in Kamakura. They were just collecting some goods along the way but they held my visitor overnight and he overheard some of their plans."

Inuyasha finished the pear down to the core and chucked it, "OK, so, a military band roughed up a traveling merchant on their way to visit a temple a good two days travel away. And this is news?"

Miroku pursed his lips and sighed, staring out across the rice fields, "No, I wouldn't call that news. The news is that their target was a temple in Kamakura along the road to Kyoto which has only one priest in attendance."

Inuyasha widened his golden eyes and looked quite beautiful and quite blank. Miroku stared back, waiting for some indication that Inuyasha had caught on to his meaning. After a couple of moments, he felt forced to prompt Inuyasha, "There is only one temple in that region that has a lone priest living at it." He waited again.

Inuyasha blinked.

Finally, Miroku became fed up and smacked the butt of his staff upon the ground sending the rings jangling on their circular path, "Mushin! Inuyasha! They were heading for Mushin, my old teacher!" He rapped the hanyou over the head.

Inuyasha looked disgusted and rubbed his head, "I knew that, you asshole! I was waiting for you to tell me why it should matter if some troop commander decides to visit with that old monk!"

"They weren't going to visit him; they were going to arrest him."

"Oh, well that's different. Why the hell can't you just come out and say, 'Inuyasha, I need your help, my fat old drunkard of a teacher is being arrested for his evil life.' It would save a lot of stupid conversation." He set off towards Miroku's house at a brisk pace. "Come on, I need to get that guy's scent so we can back-track to where he was assaulted."

Miroku started to protest, "Mushin really isn't so…" then he paused and bit his lip. In a moment, he was moving off, following Inuyasha. "Welcome back," he murmured.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sesshoumaru sat discontentedly on the large balcony of his apartment overlooking Roppongi Hills. The brass fire bowl by his elbow burned with a steady flame and took the edge off of the morning's chill. Only a faint ripple marred the perfection of its finish showing where a dent had been hammered out. The cup of tea in his hands was fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms; his life was back in place, improved even.

So? What was the difficulty? Why think of yellow walls and a cramped kitchen at night or take comfort in an image of a slightly battered tea set? Why this sense of lingering discontent? His file folders sat unattended on the table and he stared at his tea as if it were all its fault.

The door behind him slid open and Rin stepped out onto the balcony dressed in street clothes. She carried a purse over her shoulder and seemed quite lively, almost inappropriately so. "Sesshoumaru-Sama," she said. "I am going shopping. Is there anything you would like me to bring to you?"

Sesshoumaru stared at her with his face held perfectly still. She waited, with no apparent impatience, merely glancing over the edge of the balcony and down into the street far below.

"Rin," he said at last. "There is no need. Merely make out a list in triplicate and I will give it to my secretary. She will obtain what you want."

Rin lifted her head and her eyebrows. "Stephanie-Chan? I don't think so. She and I don't see eye to eye about clothing. I mean, look, this is all I've got to wear." Her hand gestured expressively at her trim body. It was attired, he saw, in flat shoes and a pink skirt that featured a poodle on a chain and which stood out in an odd manner about her knees. His eyes traveled up to a waist made all the more slender by the wide skirt and tight belt to a white sweater which emphasized her breasts. There was a narrow black chiffon scarf tied around her neck, her face above it was mutinous. She stared back at him silently.

He licked his lips. "I fail to see the problem," he ventured.

Rin replied in an oddly sugary tone of voice. "That is why Rin-Chan needs to do her own shopping, Sesshoumaru-Sama." Her head dropped a bit to one side and she swayed toward him. He watched her, rather mesmerized. The skirt rustled as it brushed against his knees and her slender hand was reaching forward delicately. She was just a breath away from touching his cheek when a horn sounded stridently below in the street.

Rin jerked back and flung herself away from him to lean far over the railing showing an astonishing expanse of black tulle and a pair of slender ivory thighs. "There's the car! Yoo-Hoo! Coming, Jaken!" she waved frantically and then dropped her arm. "Oh, he didn't see. I better get down there before he has to come looking for me. See ya!" She flashed a victory sign and headed back through the sliding door.

"Rin…"

Rin leaned her head back for an instant, "Don't worry, Sesshoumaru-Sama, I already have it. Thank you so much!" She dimpled and waved what he recognized as his ATM card between the fingers of one hand and vanished into the darkness of his study. An instant later the front door of the apartment opened and closed.

He gave a sudden toss to his tea cup and was up on his feet even as it sailed over the balcony railing trailing a glittering arc of tea in the morning air. It started on its final journey to the street fourteen stories below. He scarcely hesitated before he followed it down. The driver leaning against the car door gave a slight scream as the teacup shattered on the ground in front of him.

Sesshoumaru touched down behind the car, touching his fingertips for an instant to the pavement before standing up. As the driver walked over, cautiously, to examine the shattered fragments of porcelain on the street, Sesshoumaru flicked his hair into tidiness over his shoulders and leaned back against the side of the car in the same spot the driver had been occupying.

After brushing with the side of his foot against the shards the driver turned back to resume his post only to find his employer leaning against his car in his shirtsleeves confronting him. He straightened up to attention so swiftly his back cracked.

Sesshoumaru flicked his eyes over to the small pile of fragments as a boxy Scion trundled by with its stereo cranked to the max and ran them over.

"So, who ordered the car?" he inquired gently.

"You did, Sama. Or, I mean, your secretary did." The young man felt his scalp suddenly develop a thousand separate itches under his cap.

Sesshoumaru looked at him sharply, "Stephanie-San?"

Suddenly on sure ground, the driver warmed right up and even gave a faint smile, "No, Sama, the young lady did. She said you had an appointment and to be here at this time Sama."

Sesshoumaru gazed at the young man and recalled days not so far in the distant past when he would have ripped this human's throat out for merely sweating so. The errant breeze of the city streets stirred his hair gently as he regarded the young man who seemed frozen in place like a bug under a pin.

"I see."

The automatic doors of building C swished open and Sesshoumaru snapped his head around to see a completely oblivious stranger leave the building and head towards the subway stop. He looked back at the sweating young man, "You have a cell phone, of course."

"Yes."

"You will contact me if a young lady should come down and attempt to enter the car. Do not argue with her. Merely contact me."

"Yes, Sama."

Sesshoumaru turned away, ready to leave.

"Sama?"

With a sigh, he turned back, "Yes?"

"The young lady's appearance? How do I recognize her?"

Sesshoumaru had a thousand thoughts in his mind when he opened his lips to answer the driver. Thoughts that led to words like: beautiful, shy, laughing eyes, dimples…beautiful. What he said was, "She'll be wearing a poodle skirt."

.o.o.o.

Back upstairs, Sesshoumaru opened the door to confront an astonished Jaken in the act of brushing off one of the coats from the hall closet.

"Sesshoumaru-Sama? I thought you had left. The meeting with Koencho-San is in barely an hour. The car awaits you downstairs." The toad daemon was in human form, with his shirtsleeves rolled up, wielding the coat brush with a finicking air very much at odds with his current appearance.

Sesshoumaru frowned, "What meeting?"

Jaken tsked and circled the rack upon which Sesshoumaru's camel hair coat resided at the moment, using a steamer on the creamy wool. "Rin didn't tell you? She promised she would. Really, that young woman, straight back to her old tricks I see."

The taller youkai's eyes followed the smaller one's figure as he went on about his task. Jaken often went about his duties in human form these days. It was an unprepossessing one to be sure as Jaken's human form came across as a disreputable and oddly frog-like little man. Jaken didn't seem to care, however. He said he had gotten used to the various advantages pertaining to the greater size and relative anonymity. He also said that the previous twenty years that he had spent trapped in his human form had given him a taste for things human.

Privately, Sesshoumaru suspected that the toad youkai had discovered within himself a fondness for human vices such as smoking and the imbibing of spirituous liquors but that was one of those issues which was simply never raised between them. There were many things that they no longer discussed having grown into a habit of silence. Sesshoumaru hadn't taken the trouble to hit him since before Rin had awakened from her ensorcelled sleep. Maybe the toad was overdue.

Jaken gave a final flick to the coat and turned to Sesshoumaru, "I will be sure to mention her oversight to Rin when she gets up. Would you like to wear this coat? Koencho-San was quite anxious for this meeting after the events of Inuyasha's wedding."

"Jaken."

"Yes?"

"Rin is not here."

"No?"

"No. She left the apartment ten minutes ago, bearing my card and stating she was going clothes shopping with you."

Jaken stared back at him, looking a shade greener in the face than usual.

"You would know of her absence if you had maintained your daemon form."

Jaken dropped his eyes and put down the steamer and brush, "So, she no sooner returns to life than she is back up to her old tricks. Do not concern yourself, Sesshoumaru-Sama; I believe I know where she is going. Tell me, did she take the car?" As he spoke, he swept the coat off the rack and held it ready for Sesshoumaru to put on.

Taken off balance, Sesshoumaru complied and shrugged the coat up over his shoulders. "She did not," he said in reply as he was ushered firmly out the door and to the elevators. Before he quite knew it, the doors were sliding open and half a dozen humans were stepping back to make way for him.

Jaken spoke quickly, "Then I indeed know where she is and how she left the building. Do not concern yourself, Sesshoumaru-Sama, I'll have her back!" He waved a hand as the door slid shut behind his honored lord and wiped some sweat off his brow with a trembling forearm. It was a good thing that he had realized fairly early on that Sesshoumaru had become slow to strike at humans and reluctant to show his true nature in front of multiple witnesses. He was sure he would have been sporting a broken head by now if that had not been the case.

Rin was a problem and it was with no good grace that he fished for his keys in his pocket to let himself back into the apartment. "Shibuya," he muttered to himself, thinking of the shopping Mecca of Tokyo's young adults. He had seen her watching the commercials on the TV late last night after they had gotten back from that fiasco of a wedding. "She's headed for Shibuya." The apartment door slapped shut behind him with a decided snap.

.o.O.o.

Higurashi-San sighed tensely as she rested the phone back onto it's hook. The morning had not been a pleasant one and she had returned from her meeting to find that Sesshoumaru's secretary had left no less than four messages while she had been out. She had duly returned the call and had been pleased to be asked out for a late lunch.

Sesshoumaru was intelligent and restful. The lunch was likely to be excellent. It was the reason for the lunch that she was worried about. He had been cagey. He had said he wanted advice about Rin. Why, she didn't know. He had not explained that and she did not really feel herself ready to act as an advisor about the behavior of young women at the moment as things stood.

She sighed again and pulled out the stack of papers in its large manila envelope from where she had rolled it up and thrust it into her purse. She eased the papers out and looked at them without really seeing them. She knew well enough what they said anyway. She had been both expecting and dreading the arrival of such a packet for a good two years now, ever since Kagome had first gone through the well. It was a letter and attached paperwork from Kagome's high school bearing the official letterhead of the Ministry of Education. It said in part that the normal school system of Japan could not condone the immoral and dilatory behavior of the student Nishigawa Kagome, née Higurashi. Perhaps she, as the parent, or the student's husband would be more comfortable with sending her married daughter to a private high school and so-on and so forth. The pages swam before her eyes.

Higurashi-San plunged her free hand back into her purse searching for a wad of Kleenex. The packet she came up with was empty. With an uncharacteristic curse, she tossed the packet aside and dumped her purse out on the counter on top of the letter to pick through the scattered contents.

The front door slid aside in a resounding smack, making her jump. "Tadaima! We're here, we need to get supplies!" Kagome's voice caroled out and feet pounded through the front hallway and took a quick turn up the stairs. She could hear them overhead, Kagome chattering excitedly and an occasional low-voiced comment from Inuyasha. He did not speak up much around the house which Kagome had always assured her was a good thing but his steady devotion to Kagome was a comfort in itself.

With sudden decision, she shoved everything back in her purse along with the papers and busied herself with gathering food supplies and checking the first aid box. By the time Inuyasha and Kagome came down she was composed and able to give a smile and a hug to her daughter.

"Here you are Kagome-Chan. Everything is ready. It's a good thing I was able to stop by the pharmacy last week, the box was really getting very low."

"Mama, you think of everything," Kagome said, peeking into the first aid kit and exclaiming over some of the contents. "Ooh! Those new bandages for draining wounds that stay on five days, Mama, how useful! I'm sure someone will need them."

Inuyasha stepped up silently, carrying the yellow pack in one clawed fist. He looked over the foodstuffs on the counter with approval and started piling them in, pausing occasionally to give one item or another a cautious sniff.

"It's all fine, Inuyasha. No natto or curry in this lot. Really, that was just an oversight last time."

He grunted briefly in response and went on to the next item. He was taking no chances.

Kagome suddenly stopped, clapping a hand to her cheek, "That math test! I need my book!"

"Kagome! No…" she trailed off as her daughter bounded out of earshot around the turn of the stairs, "need to worry." she continued in a small voice.

The room was silent behind her and she turned around to find herself nose to chest with Inuyasha's red suikan. He bent down a bit and gave her a close look in the face, "So, is there something you are going to keep back? Or is it something you are going to tell her?"

She backed away a pace and made her way around him to busy herself resettling things in the pack. There was little need; after all this time he had become pretty proficient.

"Mama," Kagome shouted down, "where is my…oh, never mind, I've got it. We'll need another bag."

Higurashi-San stepped over to the closet and got out a canvas satchel as Inuyasha folded his arms and stood waiting expectantly. The silence was difficult to ignore and she didn't last long as Kagome's footsteps first approached the head of the stairs and then doubled back hurriedly to her room.

"Well?"

"Inuyasha-Kun. I don't know what to say to Kagome right now. Just take her with you and keep her safe and keep her busy. Take as long as you want." Inuyasha's ears flickered. "Within reason," she added. "I have a few things I need to clear up." she caught his look. "No-one here is in any danger, it's just a piece of annoyance. Please." She held out the canvas satchel and he took it from her fingers reluctantly.

In a flash he was out of the kitchen and trotting up the stairs after Kagome. She could hear him growling at her to "Get moving, if you can't remember it then you can do without it." The sheer normalcy of his voice made her smile. Inuyasha would keep his own counsel; she could trust him.

The phone rang, it was Sesshoumaru letting her know he would be there to pick her up within the hour. She was still on the line with him when Kagome and Inuyasha returned to the kitchen carrying the stuffed satchel and yet another armload of things. It looked like rolled-up blankets this time.

Inuyasha's brows were pulled down into a scowl and she rang off quickly to give her daughter and son-in-law a hug and to send them out the door, Inuyasha moving easily under a load that would challenge a champion weightlifter. She waved goodbye brightly and shut the door with a sigh of relief.

.O.O.O.

It wasn't until they had reached the other side of the well that Kagome voiced her concern, "Inuyasha, did you think Mama was OK?"

Inuyasha grunted and dumped the thick roll of blankets on the ground. "Why wouldn't she be? She knows I'll keep you safe. Why the hell do we need so many blankets? They'll just be in the way."

"They aren't for us."

Inuyasha straightened up, putting his hands on his hips. "Then why the hell did you make me lug them through the well?" he barked.

"They're for the village, silly. Winter is coming and nobody ever seems warm enough." Kagome resettled the weight of her pack with-a self satisfied air. "I bought them second hand, but I don't think anybody here will care."

Inuyasha sighed and flipped the load of blankets onto his back before grabbing the satchels in his free hand.

"I mean," she continued as they set off on the short trek through the forest to the village, "didn't she seems kind of distracted?" She chuckled to herself and Inuyasha shot her a sharp look though his hair. "I mean, that phone call. I swear, if it wasn't Mama, I'd think she was going on a date, she was so nervous."

A few moments passed as the hanyou considered Kagome's comments. That, and the voice that his sharp ears had picked up from the other end of the line. His ears quirked quizzically but Kagome didn't see it. She was looking for the first glimpses of the village through the trees. "Kagome," he asked finally, "I've heard you use that word before. What is a date?"


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"_What is a date?"_

Kagome stumbled a bit as she registered what Inuyasha had just said, 'He really doesn't know.' She looked at him, her ears ringing slightly, and found in his questioning gaze what she needed to see. It was, for her, a teenager's ending vision of childhood, one that treasured disappointment and confusion only to have it all solved in one hopelessly clueless sentence that flushed it all to hell where it belonged. But, well, Kagome was seventeen and couldn't help regretting that normal life she was never going to have. She smiled a little bitterly at him, "Couldn't you have asked me sooner?"

"Huh?" his golden eyes glowed with incomprehension.

"About a date." Kagome said, rather succinctly, she thought.

"But I'm asking about it now."

"I know that, Inuyasha. I'm saying I think you could've asked me about what a date was any time in the past two years and I would have been more than happy to tell you."

"Well that's good." he was starting to say when Kagome's pack suddenly sailed through the air and landed with a solid thud in the leaves on the path, barely missing his bare toes.

"It means going out together, Inuyasha! You know, boyfriend, girlfriend. He brings her chocolate, she looks beautiful. They eat dinner at a nice restaurant and get to know each other. Maybe they fall in love."

Inuyasha gave a slight kick to the pack, nudging it along the forest track a bit. "Oh, you mean an assignation." He glanced swiftly at her through his bangs to check her reaction and gave the yellow pack a sharp punt that had it spinning in midair. His hand flickered forward and hooked a couple of fingers into the straps, looping them about his wrist, "Hell, Kagome, all you needed to do was ask, I was more than willing to take you to bed any time you said the word."

She gasped and her face flooded with color. Inuyasha noted it absently and decided for the umpteenth time that she was the most beautiful when she was angry.

"That's not what I mean! How could you say that? All I ever wanted was for you to take some time out for me. For us to share some special time together. Like maybe go on a date or something. Why do you have to make it sound so dirty?"

She stopped in the middle of the path, fists on hips and jaw thrust forward. In a shrug, Inuyasha dropped his load on the path, causing leaves to puff up in a swirl about his ankles as he stalked toward her. She held her ground, gaze never wavering as he approached only lifting her eyes to maintain contact despite the disparity in their heights.

His dark brows were sharply angled as he frowned down at her, "There is nothing cheap about me wanting to take you to bed. I never laid a hand on you in that way without your consent until the very end.¹ You made it clear enough the first time, 'hands off', and I respected that."

She blinked at him, not understanding.

"Remember, just before Kikyou came back. I was trying to tell you then how much I loved and wanted you. You freaked out on me. We weren't standing all that far from here."

She bit her lips and found something very interesting to look at in the middle distance. He sniffed, but all he could smell was her scent and the surrounding woods. He took a step closer and caught her chin between thumb and forefinger, gently preventing her from looking away. She rolled her eyes at him, her expression conveying an angry sense of embarrassment, "What is this thing, 'date', Kagome? Is it a meeting for sex? Is it a young man sneaking in to meet his lover under cover of darkness?" His thumb unfolded and its claw traced her full lower lip. He studied the indentation caused by his movement there.

She swallowed, but showed no inclination to speak, her breaths coming in little huffs.

"Is this 'date' thing anything to do with this?" He dipped his head and caught her mouth with his. Kagome's eyebrows quirked even as she willingly followed his lead in their kiss. Her fingers curled themselves into the generous cloth of his suikan and she found herself sagging slightly onto his chest.

She made a major effort and pulled her mouth away, "You're just trying to confuse me. A date is just getting introduced."

He kissed her again, sliding a warm palm up from her hip to her lower back under her sweater, "I really don't think I'm confusing, Lady." With that, his eyes closed and he drew a knuckle up her spine in a nerve-tingling stroke that had her gasping and arching against him. He paused, nibbling at her earlobe, "Is this a date? Kagome?"

She stiffened and twisted between his hands, "No! That's not what I meant!"

His hands were on either side of her ribs and her sweater seemed somehow to have rucked itself very nearly up over her breasts, "Ohh, how can I talk to you? First you won't do anything, then you do too much."

She stepped away from him, trying for dignity as she pulled her sweater back down around her waist. His hand stopped her; he hadn't lifted his hand from her waist and seemed uninterested in her modesty for the moment. The sweater slid back up.

"Kagome," she lifted her eyes only as far as his mouth and that only for a moment before dropping their lids and presenting her mouth for another kiss. Which had a good deal to do with her shock as his hands left her sides and she stumbled backwards, catching her heels on the bundles lying on the path. Her hands flew out in an effort to catch herself only to clutch at air as he easily caught her.

She was furious, he was intent, "What's a date, Kagome?" Her hands were gripping his forearms as he cradled her weight easily by her elbows, at any instant quite likely to drop her if he had been any other man, "Is it this?"

She moved her feet in an attempt to regain purchase, He hesitated and then let her. She was out of breath, hair disordered and sweater rumpled as she finally placed her feet safely on the ground.

"Well?" he was inexorable. She gulped a bit and tucked her hair behind an ear; it was getting too much in her face.

"Inuyasha, a date is like flirting. Sort-of." her voice trailed off as she lifted her eyes to meet his.

He smiled a little, "And we're not flirting?"

She licked her lips, "No, I don't think so."

The smile blossomed into a grin, "Good answer, Kagome."

He caught her mouth again and it seemed to her that he was laughing. Could one laugh and indulge in a very erotic kiss at the same time? Kagome didn't know but she sure wanted to find out. She yelped as he grabbed her shoulder and swept an arm underneath her knees and cradled her up against his chest. Within an instant, he was moving off of the path amongst the trees towards a spot that he remembered from long ago, before fate had ever broken his heart.

It was a small glade with a tiny freshet of water sparkling out from a fissure in the black rock of a lonely outpost of the mountains to fall in a cool rain to add itself to a brook that wound between banks of cress and stands of burdock. He let her down into the cool grass that grew by the edges of the pool.

She looked around, there were no tracks in the grass that indicated anything larger than a rabbit had been there in some time. She left his arms and stepped about, walking straight up to the split in the black rock that formed one wall of the place. The water was shockingly cold when she put her hand forward and let it play over her fingertips.

"Kagome," he stepped forward, lifting a hand, "Kagome, is it so hard? Was I wrong? I never wanted to hurt you."

She lifted her head and looked at him, the water spraying from her fingers falling in rain bowed droplets onto the grass, "Nothing is hard, Inuyasha, were you worried? It's all OK." and with that she stepped toward him and placed her cool palms on either side of his face. He dropped his head a bit and lifted his hands to touch her elbows first. From there they dropped back to her waist and his thumbs slid along either side of her to hook solidly in the top of her skirt.

Kagome tensed, the skirt was new, "Inuy…"

His hands slid around, knuckles to the tender skin of her lower belly until he reached the front of the denim. In an instant his right hand found the metal button and popped it off to be lost in the air. She whimpered but his hands were back at her waist separating the front zipper by main force and shoving steadily down. Both skirt and panties descended towards her ankles, "Step out." His hands were on her shoulders and he was walking her out of the puddle of fabric before she could even gather herself.

"Your shirt."

Kagome was still staring at the now button less remains of what had been a really nice denim skirt and her brand new panties, "What?"

"Your shirt, take it off." Inuyasha sounded quite serious.

Kagome complied, eyes wide and a little buggy as she got it up past her shoulders and he reached to pull it the rest of the way off. She was left standing naked except for a pair of thigh-high fuzzy black stockings and a pair of old loafers.

Inuyasha ran his eyes over her shrinking figure and smiled a little with one side of his mouth, "Chilly, Kagome?"

She clapped her arms across her hardening nipples and glared at him, "Yeah. Guess whose fault it is?"

Inuyasha smiled a little more broadly and stepped forward, bringing his arms up to enfold her in the billowing sleeves of his suikan, "Better?"

She wiggled a bit and shoved her chilled nose into his throat (it was November, after all) and breathed his wild scent of forest and musky…, "Inuyasha?" she breathed. She couldn't help it, not really. His hands were tracing over her curves beneath the folds of his sleeves. There was the lightest pull of claws as he slid a hand down between her buttocks to catch her in the most surprising way, "Inu-"

"Shush," he said in a sibilant whisper, "Just shut up Kagome. Come here."

She was confused, he was all around her, where was the here he wanted? A couple of steps in his arms, his warm breath ghosting over the cold tips of her ears and 'here' turned out to be a mossy bank. The chill sides of which were erased by the by the strength of his arms and the furnace-like heat of his mouth as he kissed hers and then proceeded to kiss a number of spots that had never occurred to her as kiss-worthy.

There was a moment as he arched his back over her and went so far into her that she felt charged with power and pulled at his hair until he dropped his head and snarled at her, lips curling back to show gleaming fangs and she leaned up set her mouth over his. In a sudden roll, he swung himself underneath her and she found herself in the chill air straddled overtop him.

She gasped and stared down at him. He was all golden skin and shimmering silver hair except for the magenta streaks on his cheeks. The red of his discarded clothes slashed across the green of the grass beneath him no less brilliantly than that. His eyes glowed lambent gold as he murmured, "Ride me, Kagome, you know you can do it. You're the only one who can."

And so she did, to be brought sharply to the crest by his hands, busy with her breasts again at the peak only to find himself sliding right after her.

They sagged together in a loose heap of limbs and it was far, very far too soon that they heard Miroku's voice calling for them as he advanced up the forest path.

"Oi! For the sacred existence of Buddha! Can't you two even clear your shit off the path before bounding off and shagging like bunnies?"

Kagome gave a remarkably bunny-like squeak as she suddenly launched herself into the bushes and disappeared into the undergrowth with what could well have been demonic speed. Inuyasha pulled on his hakama and was making no pretences about being interrupted as he dealt swiftly with the quadruple tapes when Miroku emerged through the trees. He had the yellow pack over his shoulder.

"I thought you were coming to help," he said shortly. The yellow pack was dropped on the ground. "Or did you forget?"

Inuyasha was busy with settling his suikan over his kosode and didn't answer right away. Miroku watched him in a nearly accusatory silence that Inuyasha was very aware of, "Miroku, if anything's happened to Mushin there's nothing we can do to prevent it now." He glanced down at the pack and then over at the thick screening of bushes, considering for a moment, "A few minutes lost while setting off shouldn't matter."

He moved the pack closer to the bushes led Miroku out of the glade back to the forest path. Miroku carefully kept eyes to the front as a stealthy rustle sounded in the bushes behind them. Kagome was slipping a cautious arm out to grasp the handle at the top of the pack and pull it back into the leafy cover with her.

Inuyasha stepped onto the path and grabbed the sausage-shaped bundle of blankets and tossed it at Miroku, "Here. Kagome brought these along with us to pass out to those who need them in the village."

Miroku grunted as the pile landed in his arms and felt the thick fabric curiously,  
"Blankets? That's very kind of Kagome-sama. Such bright colors." He pulled out a fold of a white one scattered with very large, very pink, cabbage roses and fingered it wonderingly, "What a fine soft weave. Strong too," he declared in appreciation, giving the fabric a yank. "Do you know what animal produces the fur that it's made of?"

"Acrylic nylon," Inuyasha grunted indifferently as he gathered up the rest of the bags strewn on the path.

"An acrylic nylon," Miroku repeated to himself. "I see. It must be some kind of new animal. What is it? Is it like a yak?"

"I have got no clue. I think it's related to plastics." Inuyasha said impatiently, "I thought you wanted to get moving." With that he set off down the path, one ear twitched back to follow Kagome's movements in the glade behind them.

Miroku took the hint and stepped forward to walk in the lead as they reached the crest of the hill.

Kagome came up with them a few moments later, still brushing leaves out of her hair and trying to settle the pack more comfortably on her back. "Uh, hi, Miroku-sama." she said somewhat confusedly.

Miroku made no sudden moves as he glanced back over his shoulder, "Good afternoon, Kagome-sama. Are you ready for our trip? It was a good thought of yours to bring the blankets. They will be greatly appreciated in the village."

Kagome relaxed a bit and smiled back at him, "They aren't much but every little bit helps."

Miroku nodded solemnly in agreement and shifted the bundle in his arms for a better grip, "Indeed, and such interesting fabric. I would greatly like to see plastics if I could, one of these days. They must be very wonderful."

Kagome hesitated and then said, "You know those little water bottles that I bring? Those are made of plastic."

Miroku nodded, "A versatile animal that, Kagome-sama.."

The way to the village was taken up by Kagome's spirited description of the wonders of plastic to Miroku's continuous (and increasingly incredulous) smile. Plastics, he came to realize, were plants that could be turned into nearly anything once they were old enough and had rotted in the ground for a long time. Kagome-sama's world was wonderful indeed and tended to strain the imagination. Miroku glanced over at the hanyou for conformation but Inuyasha merely gave a faint shrug and trudged ahead.

Distributing the blankets went quickly and Kagome was overwhelmed by the response. She found she had to speak up quickly and insistently to prevent them from being either placed into storage in wedding chests or hung on the walls for the sake of display. She had not considered the possibility that they would be thought valuable for anything other than their utility and had felt a little guilty about their garishness. They had come cheap, however, from a factory sale and would be warm for the people she had gotten to know so well.

She gently detached a weeping old woman currently wrapped in a yellow blanket festooned in a pattern featuring carrots and what appeared to be bricks and sent her to Kaede's side. Inuyasha stood to one side in long-suffering silence next to a warmly-dressed Kohaku. The boy had lit up so at the mention of a road trip that Sango had been completely unable to say no. She was anxious about it however and kept thinking of more things she might need along on the trip. Miroku now carried a large bag on his shoulders on the top of which Shippou perched.

Shippou seemed out of sorts and tended to go silent and watchful when around Kagome and avoided Inuyasha altogether emitting miniature growls the entire time. Inuyasha didn't seem to care and actually walked across the main square of the village to engage Miroku in conversation for a few minutes about some small matter. This caused the kitsune to crawl down the back of the pack and dangle there, out of sight, Miroku was forced to put his hands up to the pack's straps to ease them from where they were biting into his shoulders and it was with a grunt of relief that he greeted the hanyou's movement away from him to go over to stare meaningfully at Kagome. Shippou promptly scrambled back up and now sat on the top of the pack sounding like a pot getting ready to boil.

Oh, yes, it was going to be a lovely trip.

(¹) – _Only to be Distracted_ by Nokomarie the Snake


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A construction pit turned out to be blocking most of the exit as Jaken attempted to leave the subway line at the Shibuya station. Jaken stared at the yellow tape resentfully and considered the queue waiting to get out through the one remaining turnstile. Sesshoumaru wasn't going to be pleased. He, Jaken, was to be retrieving Rin not mucking about in queues of humans waiting to move. His shoulders sagged; he felt very pressured and coughed a bit resentfully. There was an intermittent pain in his chest when he coughed and he couldn't tell if it was the effects of the cigarettes or the remainder of the gas attack so many years ago. He gave another little cough, searching for that twinge of pain, ah, there it was. A voice at his side startled him out of his self-absorption.

"Are you in need of assistance? I'm sorry, you don't look so well. You should wear a mask. Please, take this one."

A youngish-looking woman was standing next to him, her baby on her back and a paper face mask dangling from her fingers. "It's OK, here, that is new from the box, I have plenty. Come and sit down." Her pleasantly homely face smiled back into his for a moment as she led him over to a cement bench built into the wall.

"No, no, it is only the air," he replied weakly, sinking down onto the bench (his knees ached). "I shall be better in a moment. Tell me, is this the only way up from Shibuya Station?"

"I have always thought so. Just wait a few minutes and the crowd will clear. That construction site has been there for weeks." She placed her shopping bags down in a matter-of-fact manner at her feet and looked off into the crowd at the gate.

Jaken stared at the baby on her back which stolidly stared back in return. He couldn't tell its sex but it seemed a large child for such a slight woman to be carrying on her back. Its gaze never wavered from his and it was Jaken who dropped his eyes first.

"There, didn't I tell you? The crowd is clearing. Well," she continued, bending her knees to reach the handles of the bag at her feet, "you should be fine now."

Jaken scrambled off of the bench and caught the handles of the bag, "Please, let me get that."

She drew back a bit and looked at him. The remaining people around them were moving toward the gates and Jaken hefted her bag with only a slight stagger at the surprising weight of it, 'What does she carry in here, rocks?' he wondered briefly. They started moving.

"You live here? In Shibuya?"

"Well someone has to."

"Then, perhaps you could help me with something. You see, I'm trying to locate this girl…"

The pair of them exited up the escalator in their turn, Jaken talking away and attempting to describe Rin. He never noticed that the baby riding on the woman's back barely turned its head from its study of his face.

OOO00...o..0

Meanwhile, Higurashi-San met Sesshoumaru for lunch at a well-known French bistro in Tokyo.

"Do you always eat French food?" Kagome's mother wondered as she fingered the implements at the place settings in the Café Féminin d'Hygiène. "I never seem to…well, that is, I…" She trailed off in confusion and met Sesshoumaru's eyes. He seemed to be laughing without cracking a smile.

"I find some French food tolerable. Why, is there a problem?"

"No, not at all. Not really, I mean, I'm just not used to it. I don't get out to eat much and when I do, it's not this fancy and it's not foreign."

"Ah, I see," he took a sip of wine and she blushingly followed suit. The sounds of the afternoon crowd at the bistro surrounded them

"It's the fat content," he said abruptly.

Higurashi-San almost choked and quickly swallowed. "I'm sorry. It's what?"

"The fat content. Youkai have high systemic needs and either must eat enormous amounts of food or eat food of high caloric content. When they eat at all, that is. Places like

Wacdnlds are perfect but I prefer the ambiance here. Don't you?"

"Oh, yes, of course. But, didn't you bring me here for a purpose? You really didn't need to bribe me with this beautiful lunch. it's Rin, isn't it?"

Sesshoumaru paused as lunch was served and she noticed that his meal was a good deal different than hers. Hers was a rather nice salad. His appeared to be a thick brown soup with cheese on top. She shrugged and started eating as she waited for him to run out of silence. It wasn't all that long.

"Rin is no longer a child."

Higurashi-San dug into her salad with enthusiasm and crunched on a bread stick.

Sesshoumaru toyed with his food, eventually he said, "I do not understand her actions. She was always compliant."

The salad finished, Higurashi-San beamed at the waiter as he removed her plate and traded for her entrée, "This is so nice. But I'm still not very good at all the western utensils. So confusing."

Sesshoumaru stared, a bit flummoxed. He had after all, been trying to say something. Where had his subject gone?

"Rin is a girl with little experience," she continued, relieving his mind. "I understand that. And yet, that young woman has traveled far, very far from where she was born, in both time and space." Sesshoumaru sat silent as she picked at her food a bit more.

"Kagome, also," she continued, "has traveled much in her life, as you have. Inuyasha, the most of all, perhaps. And I, not all that much to speak of." She took a sip from her water glass and set it down with a direct look at his face, "Why ask me?"

"Uh." He fell silent and stared out the window over her shoulder, "You're the only woman I know."

"Oh, come now."

"But it's true. This Sess…" He stopped and concentrated on his meal for a little bit.

She was satisfied enough, she had her own meal to contend with and had her own worries. How she was going to tell Kagome that she had been expelled was beyond her.

He broke in on her thoughts, "I ask what has happened to Rin. She is not as she was. The girl Kagome seemed very uncontrolled in the past."

"Really?"

"She did. She seemed very independent of action. It seemed she paid very little heed of my brother and would try to stop him from what he was doing. Very unwomanly."

"Is that so?" Higurashi-Sama stabbed a fork into the top of her Crème Brûlée..

"Spoon," Sesshoumaru said absently, "the little one, second from the left."

She searched her place setting and found it. Her cheeks were pink and she seemed a bit annoyed.

Sesshoumaru wondered if he had said something wrong, humans were so difficult. Then she took a bite and paused with a sigh. She unconsciously tilted her head back and he could see the movement of her throat. All was right with the world, he thought.

"Very well. For that, I am not in the mood to be angry with you. But what in the world do you expect of her?"

"I expect her to be Rin."

She looked at him, measuring, "What Rin? Your little daughter?"

"How could Rin be my daughter?"

"Then what is she?"

"Rin." He answered simply and she dropped her spoon in the dish.

"We do, indeed, need to talk."

He called for the check as she wiped her lips.

..ooOoo..

They continued the conversation as they crossed the sculpted quadrangle of Roppongi Hills to Sesshoumaru's car park. The car was waiting on the street with its driver standing next to it. Higurashi-San was in the midst of explaining the usual needs for independence displayed by most young women as they grew and Sesshoumaru was on the verge of a retort when he saw the driver. He frowned and waved him away with an abrupt gesture. "Thank you, I will drive the lady myself."

"You don't need to drive me home. The subway is fine. It's not a long ride at all."

"I do not like discussing my personal business on subway trains."

"But I wasn't requesting you to come…" Sesshoumaru opened the passenger door and Higurashi-San slipped right in while continuing to speak," along so there is no need. I do just fine taking care of myself you know," she continued as he shut the door and circled the front of the car to the driver's seat. It was OK, she knew he could hear her. Inuyasha was the same way. He started the car and pulled smoothly out into traffic. She sighed and fiddled with the overloaded purse in her lap and frowned to herself as she contemplated its ominous contents.

"Rin was brought up to be very independent." His voice was cool and distant but she bit her lip in amusement at his self-defense.

"With your constant watch of her every step? No doubt."

"She foraged for her own food and lived alone for days when waiting for me."

"Was Jaken there watching her at all times?"

"Of course."

"Well then, she wasn't really alone. Jaken never neglected his duties."

"Yes he did, he is victim to frequent oversights."

"I didn't mean to bring that up! Oh, my. I still don't think he was really culpable for Rin getting poisoned or anything else. Girls will be girls, you know," she finished weakly.

"I was referring to the escapade this morning."

"Kagome doesn't like me buying her clothes either."

"My secretary buys her clothes."

"Uh, Stephanie-San?" She looked out at passing traffic with a feeling of surprise at how close to home she was.

"Stephanie-San is eminently competent." He made the turn onto the steep set of streets leading to the shrine.

"Stephanie-San has yellow hair like a brillo pad and is at least six feet tall and not a young Japanese lady. I do not think she is appropriate to choose clothes for Rin to wear."

"Stephanie-San chooses the designers who make my business suits." They were pulling up behind the shrine. She rolled an eye over at her seat companion and the faultless Armani suit he was wearing.

"I really don't think it's the same thing. Do you even know who makes young woman'sclothes?"

He frowned faintly and shut off the car. "I will have Stephanie-San look into it."

She sighed and looked at her back door. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Tea," he said firmly and got out of the car.

OOOOO…..OOOOO

Keys rattled at the lock of the apartment in Roppongi Hills and a transformed Rin strode in followed closely by an expostulating Jaken. Her formerly deep brunette hair was now several shades lighter and several inches shorter. She wore a gray tank top under an extremely short gray jacket with an equally short gray suede skirt. Her black boots had moderate western heels and both she and Jaken were loaded with bags. Jaken was so loaded down that he had to kick the door closed with his heel.

"I really don't think you should have left those clothes in the dumpster like that, and changing in an alley is not at all what you should do."

"I put them in a plastic bag right on top," Rin offered. "Someone is bound to find them and take them home for their kids to play with." She dropped her bags on the floor of the foyer with a groan, "Oh, those weighed a ton."

"If you had let me use the concierge he would have sent one of the attendants up with our things on a cart."

"No, I don't like the way they look at me." Rin was working her new boots off.

Jaken walked down the back hall to the side door of Sesshoumaru's study where he knocked diffidently, "Sesshoumaru-Sama? It is I, Jaken, I have brought the girl back." He waited for a moment and, hearing no sound, ventured to knock again. "Sama?" The door swung open revealing a dark and uninhabited room, the windows showing the evening lights of central Tokyo and the last traces of sunset. He was surprised and chagrined at the same time. His human disguise was effective and reversible. Both things he considered to be a real improvement on the faulty disguise spell he had been trapped in for several years. But it was perhaps it was a bit too effective; his senses were dulled to the point of near nullity and he could not sense his master's youki. With a sigh he flicked the switch to turn on the desk lamp and crossed the room to draw the curtains to shut out the night.

"Sesshoumaru-Sama?" Rin's voice echoed slightly from the cavernous living room.

"He's not here, Rin."

Rin turned and saw Jaken in his natural form in the lighted doorway of the study. He stood in his shirt tails winding his trousers up over one arm. His skin glowed green in the reflected light of the desk lamp behind him.

"Not here? But it's after seven. He's always here in time to eat dinner with us."

Jaken shrugged his shoulders in response and turned to go to the back hallway, "My senses tell me he has not been here all day. I'm going to get changed. Perhaps you should put your new clothing away." He disappeared through the side door and Rin was left to fumble Sesshoumaru's bank card out of her wallet and enter the study herself to place it neatly back on the desk from were she had filched it that morning. She sat down in the chair and stared vacantly at the Tang Dynasty horse standing on one of the bookshelves. It stood in solemn glory, one of a pair and, outside of Jaken just down the hall, the only thing in the entire apartment building older than herself.

OooOOOooo

It was late in the afternoon when Inuyasha declared that the beaten turf they were crossing was the spot they were looking for. This was where the merchant whose path they were backtracking had intersected with the traveling group of military horsemen. Kagome looked around at the short grass with a sigh. She didn't see any difference between this spot and any of the rest of the earthen road. The ground was as scuffed here as it had been all along the way and there was not another path crossing it that she could see. "I still don't see it," she said a bit disconsolately.

Miroku dropped his hand on her shoulder and pointed across the moor with a chuckle, "They came from over there, Sama, and entered the path here." He pointed down at a point some five feet away.

"They camped over here," Inuyasha added. He was some distance off of the track and walking towards a spinney of trees. The group followed him and Sango knelt down thoughtfully, picking some small item up off of the ground. She walked over with it cradled in the palm of her hand and passed it over to Miroku.

"I should think Inuyasha is right, this looks like a harness mount and there is a mon upon it." Miroku and Kagome leaned over to look at the small bit of metal as Inuyasha stomped back towards them.

"Oh, course I'm right! When are you going to learn? The question is, do you want to keep going or stop here for the night?"

Miroku closed his hand about the object in his palm, looking off into the distance ,"Keep going, of course."

"Hey!" Kohaku shouted back at them from the spinney were he had wandered with Shippou. "These guys were slobs, you should see all the stuff they left."

The group followed after him interestedly enough and stopped to view a campsite scattered with discarded trash. It seemed as though this was a well-established site in a small dell further defined by a ring of trees and stones. The fire pit was dug in and floored with stones and a couple of large logs had been brought up on either side of it at a comfortable distance. But the last occupants had made no effort to clean up when they left and an unpleasant collection of trash had been left in the fire pit to burn halfway out. Kohaku was using a long stick to lever some objects out of the center of it and lay them to one side.

There they sat, a pair of partially-burned saddle bags. It had rained in the couple of days since they had been tossed on the fire and slumped to one side in a sooty ruin showing empty interiors. Shippou had taken up a stick in his turn and was slowly turning the sodden ashes over muttering to himself. Inuyasha now crouched on the opposite side of the pit watching what was turned up with interest.

The others looked about the spot and made a few half-hearted attempts at cleaning up but Miroku clearly seemed to be impatient and kept walking out of the dell and staring pointedly at the sun lowering in the west. He was just turning back to voice a complaint about wasted time when Inuyasha gave a sharp grunt and dove his hand into the wet mess of ash and half-burned trash that Shippou was turning over. He came up with a fistful of gunk and what looked like a bundle of sticks and stared at them for a moment, sniffing. He looked over his shoulder, "Kagome, water."

She searched in her pack for one of her bottles and ran a short stream over his hands as he wiped at his prize. "Eww, a bony hand," she backed away as Inuyasha dropped it on the ground and went back to fishing in the pit, "Do you have to collect these things, Inuyasha?" He ignored her and flipped his long sleeves up over his back for easier movement. She pulled out a long scarf she kept in her pocket for the purpose and tied his sleeves back silently.

The others gathered around the first find and Sango turned it over gingerly. They could hear in the background a steady rain of light thuds and exclamations of "Ick" from Kagome as Shippou kept stirring and Inuyasha fished out more remains. Sango pursed her lips and studied the object before her. It was a hand, right enough, but one that showed that it had possessed clawed digits.

"Rat youkai?" Kohaku wondered, crouching next to her.

Sango glanced over at her brother and smiled briefly, "You would think so wouldn't you?" she asked him. "But, see here. The tendons still adhere and if I press on them like this," this being demonstrated by a firm press to the skeletonized palm with her stick. The digits pressed outwards and flared the claws down into a lethal curve, "The claws extend. Now, what do you think it is?"

"Ah, a cat youkai," he sounded pleased. She turned a conspiratorial smile upon him and Miroku's glance lingered briefly on the two before he went to bend over the other discoveries that Inuyasha was pulling out of the pit.

"Well?"

"Well, what?" snarled the hanyou briefly, continuing to work.

"What happened?"

Inuyasha sat back with a sigh, dropping his filthy hands between his knees, "They were killed, butchered and eaten."

Miroku pushed at one of the objects pensively with the end of his staff. It was clearly a hip bone and equally clearly had been sawn in half. "By what?" he asked reasonably. "Was there another party that camped here?"

"No." Inuyasha got up and moved off. Miroku followed him through the small stand of trees to a spot a short distance away one of the numerous small freshets of water that bless Japan Inuyasha washed his hands, Miroku looked around and wrinkled his nose, somebody had been using the area hereabouts as a latrine by the smell of it. He cast about a bit as the hanyou kept scrubbing at his fingers in an insistent manner. It didn't take the monk long to find it, it was behind a rock and even the chill of November didn't keep the cloud of flies away. Inuyasha came up behind him, arms crossed and hands now tucked firmly into his sleeves.

"That was them," he said briefly, "that was the party of human horsemen we've been looking for. They killed a couple of youkai and roasted them up for dinner." Miroku snapped his head around and stared at the alien gold of his companion's eyes for an instant before heading back to the abandoned campsite. Inuyasha paused and lifted his nose to the breeze to sniff and listen, finding no other information. He could hear Miroku's voice raised in terse orders, "Don't get comfortable here, were moving on." He turned to follow.

To be continued, as ever.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Once they decided to keep moving, the group traveled swiftly through the early part of the night. There was a brief camp made to eat some warm food and rest, only to be up again at the frosty crack of dawn the following day to head into the Kamakura district where Hotiji temple was tucked away on the slopes of a mountain.

Kagome generally recognized the hills, she had been to Miroku's temple before, but she now wondered about something that she had seen recently on TV in her own time. Looking about the woody outlines of the hills didn't help her though and it was on the tip of her tongue to ask Miroku about the giant Buddha statue that was supposed to be in the area when she caught the tense, unhappy look on his face and held her peace. He was trotting along on foot, veering away from the earthen road as it became cobbled stone with an air of fixed determination.

A blaze of heat heralded Sango as she whooshed above them on Kirara's back with her two passengers. She looked down at her man concernedly but swung away again to resume her position overhead and slightly behind. Kagome turned her face to rest it more firmly in Inuyasha's flowing ocean of hair. His heartbeat was steady as he traveled along beside Miroku, saying nothing, only equaling the other's pace in a steady, ground eating lope.

Miroku was making for the hills but was now cutting across fields and moving in a bee's line towards some point in the slowly approaching mass of autumnal foliage. There was a smudge of smoke on the horizon that made Miroku curse and Inuyasha hold up to call Sango back with his powerful voice. She had seen it and swiftly dropped down to deposit the kitsune and her brother onto Inuyasha's back as she called to the monk to wait, that she would take him up. He gave a vague wave with his shakujou in acknowledgement but didn't pause and she grunted with irritation as she hurried to drop off her passengers and followed to pick him up on the run.

Kagome shifted to make room on Inuyasha's back and Kohaku climbed on a bit nervously. Shippou jumped up, managing to pull both Inuyasha's and Kagome's hair. Kagome winced and looked in surprise through watering eyes at the kitsune as he settled himself on Kohaku's shoulder. Inuyasha tensed, surely on the verge of some retribution when Shippou spoke in his most childlike voice, "Sorry, I slipped."

Kohaku swung his eyes over the flood of Inuyasha's hair to lock glances with the girl. He seemed to be pleading for something that Kagome didn't quite understand An instant later, Inuyasha relaxed his tense stance to resume their journey after those so quickly vanishing into the green, red and gold hills of Kamakura. Such things as an annoying kitsune were going to have to wait.

Kirara flew ahead with the familiar double weight of the Houshi and her taijiya on her back toward the rising hills where there was a rumor of lingering smoke slowly being released by the morning mists to rise and be lost in the stratosphere. She dropped lower without being commanded and crossed a paved road to circle up the side of the mountain. An ancient stone stairway was visible in glimpses through the trees and suddenly they were at the spot where the venerable building had stood and quietly rotted in peace for time out of mind.

No longer. All that remained of Hotiji temple was a smoking shell. Miroku gasped and his hands on his staff tensed, nearly cutting off Sango's air in turn with its pressure against her sternum. She didn't object however as they circled more closely in and finally landed by the side of the dip that marked the place where Miroku's father had succumbed to the cursed vortex in his hand.

Miroku swung a leg over Kirara's tails and was dismounted before she even settled on the ground. He started at a run to the ruin soon dropping to an exhausted walk. Sango watched him silently as he went up to the remainder of the porch of the building. Timbers creaked under his weight as he stepped cautiously under the more solid-seeming lintel. Here he leaned over, picking up what seemed to be a strong thread with short red silken rags strung across it. He dropped what he was looking at and ventured into the still smoking interior.

Seeing that it showed the light of day through the gaping doorways, Sango urged Kirara up to hover over the burned-out shell and watched attentively through the gaps in the roof as Miroku picked his way across the supporting beams of what was once the floor below. It was on the tip of her tongue to call down for him to wait; that together they could search the place more effectively, but she held her peace. There was no stopping him and after all, he seemed to be heading for a clear destination. She hoped he would get to it soon.

She whipped her head around as Inuyasha suddenly bounded into the clearing in an explosion of autumn leaves and paused to look up at her. He didn't shade his eyes even though he was looking straight into the sun and turned his head only briefly to order every one off of his back. Inuyasha gathered himself and leaped up to the bough of a tree overhanging the eaves of the temple. Pacing along the bough he stared hard at the ends of the roofs across from him before he took a sudden light bounce and leaped to touch down on an eave and run up the slopes of the remaining roofs to follow Miroku's path from the exposed rafters.

Miroku heard him and paused in his trip across the great floor beams. "I don't need you Inuyasha," he called up to his friend. "I can take care of myself."

Inuyasha dropped his hands down to grip the cross beam he was standing upon. "I am here on Sango's behalf, Asshole," he hissed from above. "I'm just here to do the right thing and keep your sorry ass alive while you make a fool of yourself. Go straight ahead with what you were doing."

Miroku stared sharply at the insolent red-clothed figure on the beam above him. He drew his breath in, "What the fuck do you know about what is the right thing to do? I have to do this." The beam he was standing on gave an ominous creak.

"Then get on with it. I have spent too much time and effort on you to waste it in this way. Mushin's body is neither burned nor is it here if that is what you need to know."

"What?" That got the monk's attention.

"Are you deaf as well as stupid? I can smell, damn you! No meat was roasted here."

Miroku nodded his head and took another light jump across a hole to a section of flooring. "That's good. Does it mean he's still alive, Inuyasha? Is he safe? Can you tell me that? Besides, I am also looking for some items that were surely left here."

"Fucker," muttered Inuyasha and he took another depth-spanning leap to another sound-looking beam set down low from the roof this time. "I grow sick of following you." There was another ominous creak and waft of heat from the wreckage far below in the basements. He leaned over and stared down into the depths, feeling the steady glow as one would from a bed of ash-blanketed coals. He spoke again, more urgently this time, "Miroku, hurry up, this is stupid. This place is about ready to collapse."

"Patience, patience, Inuyasha," Miroku said, his confidence growing, "we'll have it in a moment." With a final jump, the Houshi made it to a side wall, which had some flooring remaining in a narrow strip on a set of bare stubs. His sandaled feet searched for purchase as he straddled his legs for balance. Standing at a ridiculously sprawled angle he opened a small shrine set in the wall, having to duck underneath the outwards swinging door, and felt around within for some item without looking. Bottles and caskets began to drop past his shoulder to disappear into depths of the sub basements revealed by the destroyed floor of the temple. The scrap of flooring beneath his feet began to sag and come off in charred chunks. As the items impacted below the disturbed ash began to billow up and smoke in response to each fallen object. The fire wasn't out yet. Not by a long shot. Within moments, Inuyasha could see tiny flames crawling up the wreckage and licking along the wood of a supporting beam near Miroku.

"Bouzu, cut it out. The building is back on fire."

"Can't cut it out. It'll grow right back!"

"Miroku…"

Feeling around a bit more in the recesses of the shrine, Miroku found an unevenness in the wall at the back of the shelf. It was a catch to a shallow hidey hole built into the temple wall. His tongue thrust itself out slightly between his lips as the Houshi felt around blindly to tease the catch open. It was stiff. With a grunt he reached further in and tore at it, breaking several nails off to the quick in the process. With a last twist he had it open and his hand on the first of the three items of the hidden cupboard. Dragging his arm slowly and carefully out of the wall, he had to turn a bit to keep a grip on his prize as he did it. He quickly shoved it in the front of his robes and reached back in after the other two.

As he felt around in the back of the cubby, his knuckles knocked against an unexpected unevenness. There seemed to be one more thing at the far back of the recess and he could not force himself to leave it behind. Reaching farther in than ever, he tried to search for new footing to give him better purchase but there was none available.

"Miroku!"

"Busy."

One more shift and Miroku was just saying, "Ah," in triumph when things gave way completely and Inuyasha followed in a flying rush down only to be greeted by an un-edifying view of the monk's rump as he scrabbled for purchase on a slanting section of collapsed beam that was already re-lit and burning down below.

"Stupid git! Hang on!"

Even as Inuyasha shouted the beam behind him collapsed. Within an instant the hanyou called up his youkai blood and transformed even as he leaped across the intervening space to sweep Miroku's body one-armed against his chest. Another leap carried them both to the far wall of the temple above the now flaming pit and straight through it in a shower of splintered wood to the relative safety of the rear court. The pavement there was hot and Inuyasha did not hesitate in his headlong dash cross the court and out through the broken rear doors.

Miroku sagged in his arms, possibly knocked unconscious by either the smoke or the repeated blows of their trip out. With a shrug, the transformed hanyou dragged the unresisting body of the monk off of the porch to get away from the building and stopped under the trees there. He could hear the others crying out from where they were at the front of the temple and knew he had to reassure them soon but he paused a moment and turned his red glowing eyes towards his friend.

Miroku was sitting up, rubbing his face and staring back at him, dismayed by the appearance of the daemon standing before him, "Inuyasha? What's happened to you? You've become a full youkai?"

"Sort of, I…Look, I'll explain it later. Kagome's scared and you are such a prick. I hope whatever you got was worth it." He bounded off and Miroku dropped his aching head to his hands. In a moment he rolled over onto his stomach and coughed, feeling the lumps of the things he had gotten in the front of his robes. He grinned, something at least was finally going to go right. But lying in the singed stubble of ruined grass, even as wet as it was, was none too pleasant and Miroku didn't stay there long. He was standing up when Sango arrived around the corner of the burning building out of breath and with Kirara clinging to her shoulder. The others followed her at some distance.

"Houshi-Sama! What did you just do?"

Miroku winced, she hadn't called him that in a couple of months.

"Sango, I…"

"You endangered yourself and worried the rest of the party! You heard Inuyasha say to back off! I heard him clearly and I was further away than you."

Miroku licked his lips and looked beyond his love's stiff shoulder to view the rest of the group. Inuyasha was back in hanyou form again and had stalked across the unkempt grass of the field to gaze at the woods beyond with his arms firmly folded in his sleeves. Kohaku was casting about in the long grass looking for something and Kagome was standing behind Inuyasha's shoulder, staring at him. Shippou had disappeared into the unkempt grass.

"Well?" Sango ranted on, "What about the inhabitants of this area? Did you fail to think that flame," here she waved her arm a bit wildly at the newly burning shell of the temple building, "would attract someone's attention?"

"Sango, I very much doubt..."

"Oi," Inuyasha said.

They turned around. From out of the eves of the forest stepped a party of seven sturdy men and one boy. They were all monks to judge by their shaven heads and well-woven hats and sandals. They looked in dismay at the newly-burning building and cried out. They had hoes and pruning hooks with them, obviously intending to salvage out of the ruin what they could. The renewed fire put an end to any hope of that.

Miroku stepped over and looked through the hole Inuyasha had left in the wall to see down into the remains of the temple where he had been born and raised. He felt a sort of intermixed joy and grief as if the destruction of the place were some sort of completion. The building's loss was indeed a shame; gone were the priceless carvings on the lintels, gone were the statues and sacred texts. Gone, all gone to where everything goes in the end.

He turned his back and walked to towards the monks, "Could you gentlemen tell me if the Abbot Motouji is still in residence at Raikoji temple?" Behind him, the Hotiji temple collapsed in on itself with a roar.

0.0 

The Abbot received them in the room he reserved for study. It was cool there and very quiet, the garden just visible through partially opened shutters. A pair of braziers flickered with clear flames just barely offsetting the breeze. He sat wrapped in his robes on a small raised dais. A low table was set before him upon which was all the equipment for writing, including some dozen sheets of fine plum bark paper and his own personal seal standing upright in a dish. He appeared to be attending to some correspondence judging from the moderate size of the sheets. There was a simple meal of rice and clear soup standing untasted by his elbow as he slowly traced down characters in flowing brush strokes in a rather closely-written document.

The group filed in and knelt silently on the mats by the door waiting for him to lift his head and acknowledge them. This took some minutes however, as the venerable abbot appeared to be both writing with the one hand and counting in mid air with the other as he softly muttered syllables to himself. Finally, with a sigh he rested his brush down and looked up at them.

"A very good morning to you all," he said with a kind of seated bow.

The others promptly responded in kind with the exception of the hanyou, who had a strict policy of bowing to no one and kept his arms tucked firmly into the sleeves of his robe. The abbot took stock of the golden eyes staring so straightly back towards him and gave a faint further nod of his head. This gesture caused those eyes to widen slightly and the ears to droop as Inuyasha dropped his challenging gaze and looked away into neutral space.

"Young Miroku, is it not? It's been a good three years since I last saw you. You still haven't shaven your head. And I still have yet to receive those regular letters which you promised me. No doubt they have been lost in the post." The abbot's voice had a tone of gentle reproof.

Miroku shifted uncomfortably as he started to sweat. The eyes of his companions were boring holes into his back, "I have been traveling much, Holiness, and the post is indeed disrupted. Even paper and ink are frequently hard to come by in these troubled times."

The abbot pursed his lips and looked down at his own paper spread in front of him and frowned a bit as something on it caught his eye. He muttered to himself, counted on his fingers again and added a careful stroke to the end of one line.

Miroku steeled himself to patience as this operation took place, holding back on the flood of questions pushed at him. They had entered the temple grounds through the rustic back fence and Inuyasha had already verified that Mushin had both been here and gone.

The abbot spoke this time without looking up, "I seem to recall having given you plenty of paper and ink at the outset of your journey."

"It is all used up, Sama."

"In writing letters to me? Odd. I believe that is what I gave you a fine supply of paper and ink for. Kindly show me what you have done with it."

An imperious hand was held out and Miroku hunched up his shoulders against the astonished stares of the others as he reached into his scrip and drew out a thick wad of his ever present ofuda. With a bit of a sigh, he shuffled forward on his knees, laid the strips of paper across the waiting hand and retreated.

There was a pained silence in the rest of the room as the strips were paged through and the abbot's soft voice read off what was written upon them, "Let's see here; guaranteed easy child birth, double harvest, be gone daemon, hold daemon, open locks, protection from daemons, super double love charm…" he paused slightly there as Sango gave an affronted gasp and then continued as she clapped a hand over her mouth, "exorcise ghosts and silent retreat. Well, that's quite a shopping list. And how much were you charging your fellow man for these goodies?"

"I didn't!"

Kagome cleared her throat.

"I won't deny that grateful villagers were oftentimes very generous with offers of food and hospitality. Indeed, sometimes even with cash, but it was all voluntary and the charms are oftentimes sorely needed by the unfortunate." Miroku licked the sweat off of his upper lip and wondered how they had gotten so far away from his desired subject.

"Abbot Motouji, I am sorry that I have proven to be such a disappointment, but I am very worried about the fate of my master Mushin. I received word that he was in danger and returned to find Hotiji temple a burned-out shell and Mushin nowhere in evidence. I believe he sought refuge here," Inuyasha snorted at that, "and I need to get into contact with him. I have something that he left behind that will help him."

The abbot grunted and put the stack of ofuda on the table in front of him, "I hear you burnt the rest of the temple down in the process of retrieving what you were looking for. Not to worry, Hotiji temple will be re-built although it will take many years to replace its images and sacred texts. Thankfully, Mushin was alerted to his danger in time and came here. He is as well as can be expected and has since left."

"But left for where, Sama?" Miroku was leaning forward and the others were shifting expectantly. Inuyasha was digging the claws of one hand into the mat he was sitting on and Kagome tapped his hand lightly to get him to stop.

"To the four winds, I understand. He's left on pilgrimage."

"Oh, well then we can catch him up."

"No, I doubt it. I was not speaking metaphorically just now. He left by air."

"Hachi." Miroku muttered to himself.

"Hrmm, yes. A very unsanitary youkai of that appellation presented himself and offered his services. Mushin took him up on it. It seemed best all 'round. Even I could not prevent the troops of that fool, Oda Nobunaga from attempting to arrest him. They were annoyingly persistent. I was just writing a letter of complaint regarding him to my young cousin, the emperor. I would have had it off sooner but it all has to be in verse with the proper poetic and spiritual references. A bald report without a proper cover letter would never do."

"Of course, Sama," Miroku answered quietly and as one the group came to an instant decision, they would not be waiting for the emperor; they would act on their own.

Abbot Motouji looked up under his brows as they left the room and secretly smiled as he finished his unadorned and baldly factual report. With a soft thump he affixed his red inked seal upon it.

….o…

We shall continue.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Seek ye no further than that.' Jukuryo considered these words of wisdom and rotated his meditation balls around in his four fingered hand. They chimed softly and the sound pleased him. Not that he was all that fond of the chiming sound himself but the effect of the faint noise on the composure of the bat youkai he was facing across the boardroom table was well worth any minor annoyance he might feel on his own account. A sonorous voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Honorables, the third counsel congress of this fiscal year is now in session."

Jukuryo glanced down the table to where Sesshoumaru sat in impassive silence at its foot and sighed. He had tried to dissuade him; Sesshoumaru's determination to bring his complaint against the council out into the open in one of their own sessions seemed foolhardy at best. He had brought up the wisdom of letting offenses blow over. To convince the dog daemon to ignore the attempted disruption of his hanyou brother's wedding to the shrine maiden and let matters fade a bit into memory before the pair began to breed. "Don't bring it up," the old bird had said. "Let folk forget about it."

Sesshoumaru had simply ignored the comments and repeated his request for the location and the date of the next counsel meeting in his cold voice. So here they were, in the devil's den, so to speak.

The voice droned on, crawling over the widespread business concerns of the youkai holdings in Tokyo. It was complex subject and the old business bid fair to take most of the night. The new business was to be handled after that and so on to suits and petitions.

Jukuryo fantasized momentarily of the old days, long before the re-naming of Edo, when youkai lords ruled for themselves and such tiresome things were not discussed. He had been a chick then, under his lord father's care in the mountains. That was when he had first seen Sesshoumaru, the young son of one of the most powerful of lords. That was before the dark time of the great absorbing by the hanyou Naraku and all the loss and privation that had gone with it.

That had been 500 years in the past and none at this table were so old as he. None at this table had any idea of the paradox of this youthful upstart, Sesshoumaru, Jukuryo's elder by his own count. The one who had come forward in time with all of the power of the ancient youkai lords in their prime intact in his young hands. In his hands and those of his hanyou younger brother, Inuyasha, the murderer of untold scores of youkai

Jukuryo stopped fiddling with his tension balls and put them away, folding his arms to wait. 'After all,' he mused to himself, 'this could turn out to be an interesting meeting for once.'

The bat youkai opposite quivered in relief, grateful for the cessation of piercing whistles that those cursed balls had been driving through his brains. Next meeting, he was going to have to bring along a tray of suet cakes with liquor-injected, overripe berries.

000000000000000

Miroku sat alone staring out over the empty temple forecourt. He could hear the Lotus Sutra being chanted over in the main hall. He supposed he should join the monks at their holy office but he felt no inclination to do so. In the early evening he sat instead, screened from view by a couple of low bushes, with a bundle made up of the things he had rescued from the ruins of the Hotiji Temple wrapped up in a cloth in his lap, Kagome, Inuyasha and the others had gone with one of the monks on a tour of the temple treasures; Inuyasha ostensibly very bored but curious to see anything that interested Kagome and unwilling to let her alone even among monks.

Miroku laughed to himself at that thought a little wryly. Not that he had exactly been a shining example of virtuous probity. Perhaps the hanyou had a point from his view of things. Monks were nothing to trust considering the one he knew best was Miroku's own humble self.

He looked down at the knobby bundle in his lap and sobered. In the bundle was a letter, a sealed scroll, a small fragment of precious mirror in its own box and a flattish figurine representing one of the more ugly protective devils of legend. Somehow, he was going to have to find Mushin and turn everything but the mirror over. The mirror was his, come to him through the hands of his long-dead mother.

But the rest of it was needed by Mushin. Especially the last item, yes, most especially that. He had no idea how long it had been hidden in the darkness at the back of the Hotiji Temple's secret cubby but he suspected it had been there a long time. He could feel the weight of it even now pressing down against the flesh of his thighs like lead. But it wasn't lead, he had worked secretly with the tip of a steel knife and what was under the black lacquer on the figurine had shone gold. Surely, enough of a bribe to save Mushin's life if the letter and the scroll didn't work. The loops of strung cash weighing at the side of his belt were scarcely part of the equation compared to the small statue.

There was the faint scuff of sandaled feet and Miroku looked up to see Sango making her way towards him across the sloped hill of plantings around the forecourt. She came and settled next to him without speaking, her shoulder brushing his.

"All done with your tour?"

"I am," she said composedly. "Kagome discovered the temple kitchens, the monks were making oden for the evening meal. That seemed to be important."

Miroku raised his brows in inquiry.

"They're all young and hungry," Sango elaborated. "I think they are planning on staying here for the night and to carry on and find your master in the morning."

He smiled a little and leaned toward her, "So, where do we stay?"

"I believe there is a set of traveler's rooms that have been opened for us. But wherever you like, really. Kagome and Inuyasha can handle things just fine." She kissed him lightly on the lips, paused and returned to slowly move her mouth against his, then pulled away with a blush and studied her hands in her lap.

He took a deep breath and studied Sango's down turned face. Her lashes just brushed her cheekbones and the ghost of shadow that she wore on her lids caught his attention. "Sango, can you ride a horse?"

Her eyes shot wide, "A horse? I guess so. Why, what do you mean?"

"There is a place that I know of near here that I would love to take you to visit for the night."

Her answering smile was slow and warm.

It took only a few minutes for them to make a quiet getaway. Miroku left a note in the guest quarters addressed to Inuyasha. He knew the hanyou could read, he had caught him at it once or twice, rapidly scanning scrolls of histories and legends when he thought no-one was looking. Why Inuyasha considered such a thing as being able to read to be private information was a little beyond Miroku's understanding. It seemed to have something to do with never tipping his hand and keeping his own counsel but the monk felt Inuyasha took secrecy too far. High time that particular secret was out, the contents of the note would keep Inuyasha busy with Kagome anyway.

Sango merely took her bundle and boosted herself deftly onto the broad back of the placid old mare Miroku had waiting at the stable door. Miroku took the mare's headstall and lead her out on the road into town as the sun was just setting. The way was short, not more than three miles and the last rays of the sun shed a deceptively warm light on the mossy roofs of the old _ryokan _sitting by the wayside behind a trellised bamboo gate. There were a couple of other guests there before them and the stable boy gave a smiling greeting as Miroku turned the horse over to him. The boy treated the mare as an old friend and Miroku wondered briefly why the abbot would be going so often to an inn that his personal horse would be known. The monk dismissed the question from his mind however, as he joined Sango on her way to the front porch.

There, the hostess and a couple of serving maids knelt at the entrance bowing over their hands and offering slippers. The windows of the inn were concealed by horizontal wooden screens which allowed the inhabitants to see out but not those outside to see in. Sango looked about her at the hall and sighed in pleasure as the owner bustled up to have Miroku sign the ledger and offer tea. She was not particularly surprised to see a wrapped package change hands as Miroku seldom was without resources. He just preferred to finagle his way along through life as a matter of humility and principle.

She firmly stifled a laugh at that thought and followed the others into a private room almost startling in its simplicity. A subtle incense perfumed the air and shoji screens were slid aside to reveal a roofed porch and a tiny private garden with its own stone lantern already lit. There was the soft sound of water flowing and Sango stepped out to view a tiny brook that wound from one side of the garden to the other through the bamboo fence and with its own koi pond formed by a lipped inlet.

She watched the fish for a few moments. One was a piebald, white with a scattering of orange, it bid fair to crowd the others out soon. Its movements were slow, but the others backed off from it in a swirl.

Her attention was brought back by voices behind her, the innkeeper had lingered.

"We were very sorry to hear of what happened at Hotiji Temple, Houshi-Sama. The kindness of the honorable Mushin, no less than his skills as a saké brewer will be sorely missed."

Miroku winced inwardly although the corners of his mouth quirked up into a properly social smile. He might have known that the old monk had developed his activity into a sideline. That would help to explain the intensity of the fire, a large scale brewery operation in the basement. He might have known. "He is surely better off where he has gone to. I trust the loss of the temple brewing vats will not prove too great a loss to your establishment?" he asked, testing the waters.

The innkeeper shook his head, "None so well seasoned, nor a hand so well skilled. Perhaps you, Houshi-Sama, have an interest?"

"Ah, so sorry, I was not gifted by my master with that knowledge."

"A shame. Please feel free to use the baths any time. We have but two other visitors tonight and they have both already bathed. Dinner Is from our own farm; _chikuzen-ni_, our finest vegetables and tender chicken steamed in soy sauce, _chawan-mushi,_ the egg custard is flavored with ginkgo nuts, tempura with fried baby trout and grilled trout with _kinome_ pepper leaves as a garnish.

Both of his guests bowed profoundly at his announcement of the menu and Miroku tossed in a couple of extra bows as the innkeeper crouched to bow himself out and slide the screen closing off the room shut. Miroku turned with a sigh to start at the vision of Sango, already naked to the waist and kneeling to reach for the kimono box provided by the inn.

"Sango-Sama." He breathed. He swiftly crossed the room and knelt next to her, hand reaching to run a palm over her shoulder. Un-cursed now, he could feel the silk of her skin and the smooth flex of the muscles gliding beneath his palm. With a flap something landed in his lap.

"You'd best change," Sango said matter-of-factly. The maid will be here any moment to take us to our baths."

"Hmmm," Miroku mumbled and brushed her hair aside to nuzzle her shoulder before forming his hands about her ribs to pull her up and gain access to her breasts.

She gave a faint squeak of a giggle as his mouth hotly drew a nipple in and let herself revel for a moment in the sensation, knees unconsciously bracing and spreading outwards before she reached down and grabbed for his crotch. The next instant she had the folded yukata she had tossed him dropped over his head and was using it as a cushion for her hands as she firmly pushed him back, "I really want my bath and dinner Houshi-Sama."

Miroku fought a brief battle with himself while he was being pushed away and reluctantly let her go. He turned aside to let her change the rest of the way in peace and to pull his own clothing off and put on the inn's yukata with what was perhaps unnecessary force. He was still adjusting his belt when a soft knock came at the frame of the door.

Sango opened it and they followed the maid out through a couple of turns in the halls to what was the main gathering room of the inn. There was a rustic hearth set into the floor with a bright flame in the center of it. An iron pot hung from a crane suspended from a hook by the smoke hole in the ceiling. The counterpoise was in the shape of a carp and seemed to swim through the bluish smoke. As they passed through, headed to the hallway behind the blue split curtain, they could hear a couple of male voices but they couldn't see the speakers in the gloom.

The hallway to the baths had standing paper lanterns set at intervals along it and one of the outside shutters still stood open, giving a view to the autumn woods beyond. The bathing room was walled with an aperture in the roof and the thermal spring bubbled up through the stony floor to fill a pool some ten feet wide and two feet deep. Wooden buckets and stools were stacked neatly to one side and the atmosphere was misty from the steam of the waters hitting the cool of the air.

They helped each other bathe, cowed into silence by the echoes that their every movement woke in the rock-walled room and eased themselves into the onsen in stages. The indistinct murmur of voices came to their ears as they eased into the bath, caught by some trick of acoustics into the bathing chamber. That was enough keep them silent and still for the first few moments until Sango moved softly through the steamy mist to Miroku's side and he put up an arm to receive her.

His hand traced down over her side to her thigh and down between her legs. She sighed and eased back, resting her head against her folded towel. The voices from the front room were audible again in their silence and the pair paused, listening.

"So, you're sure that fat old monk survived? The monks at the temple seemed to be unaware of what had gone on until yesterday morning."

A lighter voice answered the first one, "You saw the smoke rising from the temple location earlier today didn't you?"

The other grunted assent, "Our agent staying in the temple court disguised as a wandering minstrel stated that a party of monks set out this morning and returned with one of their number running ahead to give the news of the Hotiji temple's final collapse. There are a lot of closed doors and the gardens and temple proper have been off limits to any outside visitors since we first tried to lay hands on that monk."

"So what is the Abbot's explanation?"

"Mourning the dear departed of course. That and the silence required for chanting the full Lotus sutra one thousand times for the death a holy man. It takes a while."

"That doesn't sound so suspicious."

"Such ceremonies are usually conducted at the place of death and the grounds purified, not at the temple. Also, there has been no viewing of the body, as is customary."

"How quaint of you to know that. I had no idea you had a religious bent." The other coughed and the listening pair remained frozen in anxious silence. "Perhaps we should force the Motouji temple to open their gates then. How difficult could it be?" Light voice laughed then, "It's not as if our men don't have enough heart, or food."

The deeper voice grunted, "No can do. Turns out the old turtle is related to his imperial highness, and he's already sent off a letter. Sent it the night we arrived."

"Don't we have archers? Surely you had the messengers followed."

"They missed."

"They should be punished."

"I'll have to delegate a party to dig up their headless bodies from the midden pit that they are in. What further punishment did you have in mind?" Their laughter rang around the bathing chamber. The voices slowly descended into chuckles as the pair in the bath held their breath. After a pause, the deep voiced one spoke again, "Speaking of taking a while, our two love birds have been in that onsen a bit. Do you think we should call the innkeeper to check on them? They could have been overcome by the heat."

Silently, in the flickering darkness of the bathing room, Miroku gripped Sango's shoulder and traced his fingers across her lips as she gasped. "Shush," he murmured and splashed a little in the water. In a tense whisper by her ear he muttered, "Laugh." From somewhere she brought up a soft assenting moan and splashed in return. Miroku poked her, "Louder," he hissed, "and I thought I said 'laugh'."

She gave an irritated squawk and climbed out of the tub, splashing considerably. She was simply boiling and crouched for a moment at the edge as the ache of her over-heated limbs pounded through her knees down to her ankles. Miroku eased out after her and the trick of the echoes in the room made the relieved laughter of the two men in the front room swirl around them.

"I guess we needn't worry, they're alive."

Sango's face flamed as brightly as the rest of her skin when she made her way down the now chill hallway on spongy feet followed closely by Miroku. He batted the curtain aside and stepped deftly out ahead of her into the warmth of the main hall. The cushions at the hearth were occupied now by two pipe-smoking men that they could see clearly lit by the oil lanterns set up on bamboo stands, the light focused by scoops of paper. One had the shaven pate and waxed knot of a military man and the other was a thin fellow, his hair twisted up with a woman's comb. Their eyes followed the young couple unabashedly as Sango crowded against Miroku's back in an attempt to get out of the room faster.

In the next hallway they were met by the hostess of the inn who bowed with a smile and pointed back towards the onsen.

"I'm so sorry," she said in a soft murmur, "we were so careless, that hallway seems to conduct sound straight into the bathing chamber when that window is left open. I trust you weren't disturbed from your privacy."

Miroku immediately bowed and tendered a paper package that clinked slightly. "Please do not concern yourself over it, Sama. All things are kept in confidence after all, and how could their conversation concern us? Local events are bound to be much talked of."

The woman weighed her packet in a knowledgeable palm and conducted them to their room where their meal was just being served while Sango was still getting up enough shocked spit to squawk. Dinner was on low-footed trays upon the table that occupied the center of the room and they both ate in silence. Sango still felt some disturbance of mind, however and chose to stand out on the balcony as the meal was being cleared away and the room was set up for the night.

Miroku joined her, sliding the doors closed and leaned against the balustrade, arms crossed. She pointed out the piebald orange fish and stopped in amusement as Miroku stepped carefully over the railing and gently boosted the overlarge fish out with the pressure of water from the back of his hand. It zinged off down the channel and through the bamboo bars of the fence like a shot.

"Why did you do that?" She asked, watching him as he still crouched by the water. "Are you sure that was the right thing to do?"

He looked at her then, his face careful in the gloaming, "I don't know, but I am sure that it would have eaten all the others and I actually do know that this stream empties into a natural pond across the street from this inn."

She reached a hand out to him, white in the darkness, "So wise, Miroku," she said. "and kinder than you ever let on, come here." He came to her then, sleeves rolled up and hands still dripping from the cold water to kiss her across the veranda fence. She tugged at him again and he followed in a smooth vault over the railing. The table in the center of the room had been removed to some cubby and the futons laid out and a lamp lit standing and ready by a flask of water by the head of the bedding.

Sango looked and approved. The inn had fallen quiet, this not near to any festival time and was almost empty, with only a few rumors of motion from the other occupants of the house. Somewhere, off in the distance, was the clang of a dropped iron pot and the sound of hurried footsteps as someone dropped the front shutters of the inn, sealing in the warmth in the common room. "I think this is one of the nicest houses I've ever been in," Sango spoke softly, barely breaking the silence.

Miroku shook his head and looked about himself, "I hardly know, the only times I've been here I was a child and slept by the hearth in the kitchens before Mushin shouldered me to carry me home. This is kind of new."

She moved and he looked over at her then, caught by the sway of her hips and s certain speculation in her eye, "Well," she said, quite casually, "even now, it's not like we don't have worries, but I still like the room." She tugged at the belt of his robe, "I would like to return here one day. Under better circumstances, of course."

His knot was sliding out under the steady pull of her hand and he took a step to follow the band as it slipped from his waist, "The circumstances are not good enough?" He asked with some guilt and anxiety. Perhaps they should go back after all but he didn't want to, tomorrow could take care of itself, couldn't it?

"Oh, I think they will do." With that she put her hands up to his shoulders, parted the fabric of the yukata and kissed his collarbone.

He gave a little gasp and his hands flew to cradle her against him, all of the lust for her he had been feeling since seeing her in the forecourt of the temple was back in full force. His face dropped to nuzzle her hair as a hand found its way up the side of her neck to tilt her chin, fingers spreading through the heavy tresses. She didn't hesitate but pulled his head down to hers with an arm to kiss him firmly, rising on her toes to seal it. Her other arm wasn't idle however, and Miroku gave a yelp as he stumbled back from the electrifying sensation of her warm hand cupping his most sensitive part.

It was with a not particularly sympathetic smirk that the taijiya propelled him backwards onto the futon and down in an undignified tumble. Her fingers raked up through his hair to snap the band that was securing it to fly off into the dimly-lit room never to be seen again. Miroku's hair fanned out into an aureole about his head as he thumped backwards just missing the hard pillow.

His smile was remarkably silly, "You know, I've been chased by some pushy women, but I've never enjoyed it like this."

She clenched her hand and sat up as he squirmed at bit, "What's that supposed to mean?" She was disheveled herself and looked like a flashing-eyed goddess in the dimness as her temper started to slip. His left hand clasped her wrist as his right, bare now of the everlasting beads and gauntlet reached up to pull at her robes.

"It means none of all that stupid shit compares to your reality. Sango, com'ere."

She relented then and leaned forward to be pulled to her side and positioned with a leg over his hips and his arm under her head. One hard pillow fell off the futon behind the to nearly knock over the waiting tumbler of water. And, at some point in the proceedings, Sango found herself considerately pulling the other over to position it under his head. They could kiss and relax and Sango didn't mind if the position didn't seem too promising but she reckoned without the power of a young man's strong thighs and Miroku's sheer attentiveness. She found herself crying out and shuddering as he took her and reveling in the strong massage of his hands on her body in the aftermath.

He didn't withdraw from her until much later in the night when she was deeply asleep and an insistent scratching sounded at the door of their veranda. He was neither pleased nor displeased to find it was Inuyasha and took in good part the hanyou's rapid retreat off of the railing and halfway across the miniature garden.

Inuyasha's voice sounded low in the dark, "Crap, Miroku, you owe me one. I read your letter, we're all out and the temple Raikoji has had a haunting that they won't forget for a couple of decades. Half of the monks are trying to set up an emergency mass to appease the gods and I found your watcher in the temple courtyard."

"Soften your voice," Miroku muttered, sliding the screen shut behind him, "What did you do to that guy? Who was he?"

Inuyasha hissed slightly, as if frustrated, "Some asshole who was traveling with that troop. I didn't find him until he made the mistake of taking a shit in the middens. I could smell the roasted youkai meat. Then I found him alright. He was disguised as a music peddler of some sort."

Miroku's eyes hooded, considering this news and he brushed at his flyaway hair. "I see," he said finally, "what did you do?"

Inuyasha made an irritable gesture, "What do you think? Kagome was there, I scared the living hell out of everybody, knocked him out with his own samisen and got the group out of there. Kagome and the others are up on the hill above this dump. Your abbot doesn't miss a trick and I found a second letter on top of the first one indicating he would appreciate it if you would leave late and leave his horse here. How long do we need to wait for you to get going?"

"To leave before dawn would arouse suspicion. The leader is staying here." Miroku hesitated, "Are you sure we can wait that long? If you only knocked him out won't their spy wake up?"

Inuyasha's teeth flashed in the dark, "Not a problem. He's tucked up nicely in the temple drum, they'll wait until the sun is high to investigate that one." Inuyasha gave another sniff only to sneeze, "You really owe me one Bouzu."

"By all means, Inuyasha."

A flash of silver and the hanyou was gone over the garden fence, Miroku returned to the side of his wife to lie awake until morning and breakfast released them.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sesshoumaru was not used to being very patient. A fact that he tended to try to conceal even from himself. He wished to believe he was balanced, well measured in all things. It did not take much longer than an hour, however, before he began to doubt that the committee meeting had any intention of getting past the reading of old notes. Who, in the seven hells, cared if this business or that had been turning a nice profit last quarter?

He glanced down the table and could see the beaky profile of old Jukuryo, glasses glinting, resting both his arms on the stack of printouts in front of him. His attitude was at variance with most of those present who leaned dutifully over their stacks of preprinted notes and flipped over the pages in time to the movements of all the rest. Sesshoumaru placed his hand on top of the stack of senseless printouts in front of him and called up his poison with an internal sigh.

The others at the table were slow to realize what it was that was happening. After all, the amount of youki Sesshoumaru was allowing to flow was very small. It mixed in smoothly with the usual foci of power in the room emanating from the more senior youkai at the meeting. So it was the smell of dissolving paper that got to them first. It was an acidic smell, not unlike that of bleach, wafting across the boardroom. One after the other, the heads of the various youkai elders lifted as they sensed the poisonous stench that was in the air. Jukuryo dug his claws into the thick stack of pages before him and grinned.

The bat youkai opposite Jukuryo stared suspiciously at him and then turned his head toward the foot of the table where Sesshoumaru sat, supposedly waiting for business to turn to new suits and petitions.

Sesshoumaru ignored the turning heads and merely stared fixedly down the length of the table at the trio at the head of it. They still sat easy in their chairs, unaware of the disturbance for the moment. They were listening respectfully as the chairman commenced his delivery. He was reading in a loud, sonorous voice a report on dues delivered and certain sanctions imposed upon the foul and disrespectful Oni of China.

It was slow to impinge upon the chairman's consciousness that he did not have the attention of the group at large. He became aware that there was a most unpleasant hissing sound coming from the far end of the room where that damned upstart, Sesshoumaru, was. He paused in his dissertation and looked up to see a weird green glow being emitted by that same upstart's right hand. It was causing the printout of the quarter's compiled report that had been provided him and the bit of table immediately beneath it to flame briefly and, apparently, melt, spreading scorch marks along the glossy mahogany.

It was the fall of a chair that woke the chairman from his absorption with the green-glowing hand. Around the conference room youkai were backing away from the table, some of them transforming as they piled back from the smoking ruin that was being left. He lifted his eyes from the first edge of caustic green to meet Sesshoumaru's chill glare.

Sesshoumaru spoke, "Do I have your attention now?"

The chairman gulped and nodded. Sesshoumaru alone of them remained seated; the rest of the youkai lined the walls unsure of anyone being able to make a break for the doors.

Sesshoumaru spoke again, "During the past week, a few of you paid a visit to a social event at the Higurashi Shrine." The room grew very still and several of the youkai pressed themselves against the wall, "It was a wedding. The invitation was made in unknowing error by the woman who belongs to that shrine.

"Your presence there was unwelcome and you will not re-appear there again as the shrine, its environs and the people belonging to it are now under my protection. That is all I have to say." Sesshoumaru brushed at his knees in preparation for departure.

"You can't just come in here and do that!" The chairman was mildly astonished to hear himself speak. That astonishment followed him into the other world as the quick lash of an ice cold green whip neatly separated his head from his shoulders before the chairman even registered Sesshoumaru's passionless frown.

The head bounced across the floor and rolled to a stop by Jukuryo's shoe. He gave it a faintly disdainful nudge and looked up, locking glances with the bat youkai across the room from him.

"See ya 'round," he said and wandered out of the room to wait for Sesshoumaru in the lobby.

Sesshoumaru drew a sword no one had seen and no one could identify and made a slash at the headless body that no one could perceive any injury from. "Pull yourself together," he said to the corpse and left.

The results of that odd slash were remarkable and caused several of the more nervous committee members to faint as the chairman pulled himself together and sat up.

……………………………

"They won't forget this you know." Jukuryo remarked as they reached the street. Sesshoumaru flicked a glance over at him and walked on. "Koencho-San has been trying to consolidate his hold over a larger group of the senior youkai clans for some time now and he will not be able to back down on the subject of your brother's human marriage. He fears that if these things are allowed to go on the blood will begin to thin out and we will fade, even as the fairies have."

Sesshoumaru did pause at that and faced about, "If their blood is so weak it surely will breed out. That is no concern of mine. Even my disgraceful half-breed brother is the better youkai than the strongest of them.. Just so long as my attitude is clear that is all that need be considered. They will be made to accept the situation as it is."

Jukuryo sighed, "But his name is a matter of legend among modern day youkai!. They know of him and the legends are not good." He gave a distressful cluck at Sesshoumaru's lifted eyebrow. "They know less of you, but the name and association is clear and they will begin to remember soon enough. These old legends have been handed down for generations now."

"Again, what concern of that is mine? As long as that lot," here Sesshoumaru made a disdainful flick with a hand that sent a faint rain of poison drops hissing to the pavement, "stay clear of me and mine they may do as they please."

"They will not stay clear. The legends are not pleasant. They mention Inuyasha most strongly as a monster that killed thousands of peaceful youkai and then went on to teach men to catch and eat them in an attempt to wipe out our kind."

Sesshoumaru stared, showing his surprise for once, "I highly doubt it."

"That is how the legends go. Ask that servant of yours, Jaken. He frequents many of the evening spots, he must be aware of the talk that's been going about among the modern youkai. There are old scrolls that have been handed down about this. I have even been able to obtain a few myself. The name Inuyasha is an old bugbear from the past. To have an inu hanyou appear, with a powerful older brother and actually marry a shrine maiden in our time is a bit much for them. Once they put one fact together with another and realize who you all really are, that you are not merely a descendant of the clan Nishigawa but, instead, truly the folk of legend…well, things could get very confrontational, very confrontational indeed."

Sesshoumaru resumed walking to the car park, "You will show me these scrolls and I will question Jaken. You will also oblige me by answering a question."

Jukuryo mentally tossed aside his plans for the evening and trotted to keep up with the other's longer strides, "What question, Sesshoumaru-Sama?"

"I saw some papers at the Higurashi Shrine the other evening which the woman there was attempting to conceal. They mentioned Nishigawa Kagome, the name of my brother's wife and were from the board of education."

"Yes?"

"What is a 'notice of expulsion for moral turpitude'?"

----------------------------

Inuyasha hissed to himself irritably as he returned to the campsite. He found Kagome sitting up and waiting for him.

"They are at the inn?" She asked softly as he picked his way around the small fire she had lit. The others were piled into her sleeping bag and showed no sign of movement.

"They're shacked up there all right. They intend to stay until morning."

She glanced over at him, her face partially hidden by her bangs, "You seem upset by that. They do deserve some time alone, you know."

He clawed up a twig and tossed it into the fire, "Sure, fine. Why does it have to be on my time? I shouldn't have to listen to them doing it."

Kagome blushed and giggled a bit. "And were you sitting in a tree outside the inn?" He was silent. She cleared her throat, "You don't think they would deliberately 'do it' where we could hear, do you?"

He looked at her then, following his own train of thought, "They might. They're humans." He wrapped a hand around her wrist in response to her expression, "I didn't really mean it that way. Come here." He drew at her arm, pulling her over beside him. She came easily enough and settled against his side, breathing his familiar scent.

"I can hear and smell a lot," he said. "At least the letch makes the gesture of protecting Sango's modesty. I just want to get on with this business. Get it over with and done."

"Those men are really bothering you, aren't they?"

"Yeah. It's the first time I've ever come across humans killing and eating youkai. It's making knots in my stomach."

Kagome nodded soberly and brushed his hair off of his shoulder before resting her cheek against it, "Yeah, it is strange. What a strange thing for them to do." She snuggled more closely against him and traced a hand down his torso, letting her fingers lightly play with the ties at his waist, "You're not letting yourself dislike humans now are you?"

He grunted faintly and swung an arm over her shoulders, "I shouldn't."

Her hands became rather busy.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know, what does it look like I'm doing?"

He gave a faint growl that turned into a carefully suppressed yelp and grabbed for her hand, "Not here. You're getting bad. Come-on." He stood up, bringing her with him.

Kagome was a bit bug-eyed. "I wasn't really trying to do anything. We can't just leave," she whispered half frantically.

The pupils of his eyes grew round and the rims of his irises glowed gold in the fire-lit dark. He pressed the back of her hand to the impressive erection that was straining at his pants, "You were just teasing me?" He sounded almost hurt.

She felt an instant internal reaction and clenched her knees together as she bit her lip, "Ahh, no-o-o, but." Unbidden to her, her hand flexed about him and stroked. He gasped and grabbed at a nearby sapling for support. She couldn't repress a faint giggle at his reaction and kept it up as she moved herself against him, swiveling her hips a bit. He dropped his head and inhaled on a hiss with his face pressed into her hair.

"Kirara's been awake the whole damn time," he muttered.

She raised her head up at that, startled and looked out of the shadows were they were towards the small group at the fire. Kirara blinked sleepy crimson eyes and yawned widely before dropping her muzzle down again onto her paws.

Kagome swung back to Inuyasha and the corner of his mouth drew into a quick smirk before he kissed her. A moment later, his forearm slid firmly against the small of her back and she found her hand trapped firmly between them where it had been the entire time.

This time his kiss was thorough and he gave a light bite to her lower lip as he let her go. She sagged against him dazedly and barely resisted when he spun himself and grabbed her high on her thighs to boost her swiftly onto his back. It took him less than a minute to set off at speed taking them through the forest. They traveled with ever-increasing leaps until he landed on the thatched roofs of the inn which stood a good quarter of a mile away from their campsite.

Kagome was strongly aware of his powerful movements and his clawed hands on her thighs until, having achieved an accommodating valley between two peaks in the roof, Inuyasha slowly let her slide down his back, drawing his hands along her body all the while.

She just kept sinking and dropped with a soft thump to the agreeably warm thatch below her. The thatch had been softened by time and weather and was likely due to be soon replaced. Inuyasha's suikan dropped, open, beside her, followed by himself. She followed the urging of his hands to wriggle over onto the large jacket and let him draw it over her in a big fold with his back and legs between her and the chill of the night.

They lay there for a space, breathing the faint smells of the inn and trading their own air. Kagome was soon quite comfortable and was studying the effect of star shine in Inuyasha's silver hair. His eyes never left her face as she reached to run a finger tip along the dark line of his brows, fanned her hand through his tousled bangs, massaged at the base of his ears. His own hand came up and lifted a lock of her hair, claws scratching at her scalp slightly before raising the tress up so that he could admire the gloss of it and study the blue-black glow he could see even by starlight.

"This is a lot nicer than the campsite," she said very softly. "I wonder if the others are warm enough."

"They have Kirara and the sleeping bag if the fire's not enough, they're fine," his voice was a deep rumble, almost a purr. "Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, I think I was about here." His hand slid firmly down between them and started to ease clothing aside.

She wriggled, trapped by the cloth wrapped about her as his insistent fingers found the openings in her clothing that would let him touch her skin. After a moment she gave a silent laugh and leaned up over him, "I thought I was the one who was starting things."

He smiled a little at that, "OK."

"Fine, give me a kiss." She tilted her head a little for him and his hands rose to cup her face and hold it still as he gave her kisses, each one deeper than the last as they slowly began to taste each other, letting their mouths soften. They paused for a breath and smiled before resuming, deeper than before.

Inuyasha shifted up on one elbow to pull Kagome back down beside him and rolled partly over her. He never really could give up the dominant position but she had no complaints as his hand found her waist and slid up under her shirt. He found she had no bra on and it was with a rumble of pleased interest that he left her mouth to suckle hungrily at a breast.

Kagome gasped a little and slid her hands over his shoulders and under the collar of his kosode. His hair fell in a silken ripple to mix and pool with hers. She let one hand resume the task he had interrupted her from, letting it slide between them to the ties of his hakama.

This time he made no move to stop her, merely pausing to growl faintly and ease back, giving her room to work the knots. She didn't take long and next went to work on herself, shifting her hips to pull the elastic waist of her skirt and panties down with Inuyasha's enthusiastic help. He stopped for a moment, a little puzzled what to do with them once he had them off but shoved the garments down one leg of his trousers before returning to the always enjoyable task of stripping Kagome.

Her shirt followed next and he moved over to cover her completely even while slanting his mouth across hers in a heady kiss. Her hand wriggled like a clever fish between the edges of his kosode to grasp him again and give a smooth pull.

"Gods, Kagome, he muttered as he pushed her knees aside and over his forearms, parting her and bracing her at the same time. His world narrowed down to her body, the shadowy dips and valleys of it; its secrets. She reacted to the cool of the air with a faint moan and clapped her hands onto his shoulders as he pressed into her. A quick bit assistance and he was enveloped in her warmth, her softness, her pull.

Inuyasha shifted to spread her legs over her knees as he thrust into her, using his claws to dig deeply into the old, shattery, thatch. He grunted as she started to whimper and caught her cries in his mouth, thrusting his tongue in to catch hers with hungry kisses. At the peak they forgot even that and cried out with sounds that might have been mistaken in the area as the far off cry of a bird or the primordial howl of the wolf if they hadn't been so close.

Inside the inn, Miroku lifted his head and swore softly before sinking back to sleep beside a smiling Sango.

----------------------------------

In the morning, it was the turn of the innkeeper to swear as he regarded the pile of ruined thatch that had landed from that tucked-in valley of the roof down in the courtyard. He had hoped it would hold up for another year, but it looked as though that was not to be. The entire part of that roof had to be ruined. Angry at the expense, he turned to shout for the stable boy only to remember that the lad had already left, taking the abbot's old mare back to the temple.

What a very odd night, he mused as he started to sweep up the mess. His wife was in an excellent mood. The young lady who had accompanied old Mushin's apprentice had been grinning and all of the guests had left before the sun was fairly up. What was the future to bring?


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"_And it was in the time following the destruction of the homunculus, Naraku, that it became clear that the foul hanyou, Nishigawa Inuyasha, was at the true bottom of all the destruction as he cleaved to man; taking a shrine maiden to wife. In the days following, he taught men to attack isolated and weakened daemons and kill them, eating their flesh besides along with many other abominations. Thus many of the best families were brought low."_

"Shut-up."

Jukuryo carefully laid the paper down and adjusted his glasses. "That is what the record says, Sesshoumaru-Sama, and this is the oldest one I could find, dating a mere three months after the demise of Naraku."

"I don't believe it, it is all a pack of lies from beginning to end."

"Do you dispute the age of the paper?"

Sesshoumaru frowned down at the ancient document as it lay upon an acid-free paper sheet on his desk He couldn't dispute its provenance, he could smell the centuries upon it, "I deny its truth, not its age." He looked around his study in frustration, his eyes lingering on the 'Tang dynasty horse standing on his book shelves, the companion of which now stood again in his brother's daemon house. "It's not true, it can't be."

Jukuryo rubbed his nose between clawed thumb and forefinger, "Where is Inuyasha now, if I might ask?"

"Back in time in the Sengoku Jidai, you know that."

"So, what if I do?'

Sesshoumaru flashed golden eyes at him and tightened his lips before opening his mouth to emit a deafeningly loud shout, "Jaken!"

Jukuryo winced slightly but showed no other reaction. At nearly six centuries, old in his power, he was beyond being overwhelmed by such theatrics. The door from the living room behind him opened and he glanced over to see one who was not at all immune to the inuyoukai lord's voice. Jaken stood there, in the shape of the toad imp that he was, holding a pair of slacks in his arms and swathed in a now over-sized white shirt. His eyes were round and glassy and Jukuryo could not help but feel a trace of pity for the insignificant fellow; this was sure to be hard on him.

"Come in, close the door, drop the pants and stand by the desk."

Silently, Jaken followed orders and stood by his lord's knee, waiting.

"Jaken, why did you attempt to kill my brother last month?"

"I-Inuyasha? My lord?"

Sesshoumaru gazed at him silently.

"I, I was having trouble with the staff of two heads, it was taking over my head."

"But, why spy on the Higurashi Shrine without informing me? Without any orders from me to lay in wait for him much less an order to kill him?"

The toad began to sweat.

Sesshoumaru spoke again, the cool tone of his voice very nearly erasing the heat of his words. "It comes to my mind that there must have been some underlying reason, whether the staff had taken over your puny little brain or not."

Jaken dropped onto his knees and burst into tears, "I did not know you had made peace with him my lord!" he sobbed. He paused for an instant, eyes covered, opening an eye after a moment to observe the impassive face of his patron. He was encouraged by the silence to venture further, "And, after the subway incident in which Rin was injured and you would not speak to me and I was still trapped in the form of a human I…I…"

Sesshoumaru drew back a bit and frowned and even Jukuryo drew his brows together. The little toad daemon was really making a spectacle of himself.

"I started frequenting youkai clubs, Sesshoumaru-Sama!"

The room was silent for a beat. Jukuryo spoke, "So? Ungrateful servant?"

Jaken turned to him almost thankfully, "It was companionship of a sort, you see? But some evenings the conversation would turn to the great devastation and I became curious. So I listened. The tales were about your brother, Sama." Here he turned his head towards Sesshoumaru and relaxed a bit on the floor, "They said Inuyasha had destroyed all the old families in a fit of evil. I could not allow him to live after hearing that."

"Naraku caused all that!" Sesshoumaru said sharply. "You were there."

"I do not understand how it came about myself, Sama. I am only a poor old fool after all. But I could not allow them to drag your noble name in the dirt and they were starting to mention the clan Nishigawa. I could not let them do that. It seemed best to do away with Inuyasha so they would not make connections."

"So, you watched for my brother, planning to kill him and did not inform me. Splendid."

Jaken hung his head.

"Your attempt failed, as it was sure to do."

Jaken subsided face first to the floor.

Sesshoumaru sat silent, his chin on his fist, and wished for a cup of tea in a yellow-walled kitchen and no more worries than that of a silly girl who had gotten herself expelled from school by marrying his brother, Inuyasha. Rin wouldn't be so stupid and Higurashi-San would be soothing. He frowned. His businesses could be jeopardized by this and the shrine he had taken under his protection was in danger from these idiots…suddenly, his hand smacked down upon his desk, "I need you to watch the shrine again, Jaken."

"My lord?"

"I need to speak to Inuyasha. As soon as he next comes through the well. Get out, return when he returns."

Jaken scuttled out of the study backwards, without rising, past Rin's slender ankles. She had been crouched near the door, listening all the while, the senseless babble from the television was running on in the far reaches of the apartment's cavernous living room behind her to cover any noise. She now watched with interest as Jaken hurried to the front hall with its large pantry closet. The door to the study swung partially closed to Jaken's hooked fingers and Rin weighed her options for a moment and opted for following Jaken as the more interesting party.

So it was that she was standing in the dimly-lit foyer, facing the pantry when he flung the door back open again in human form and dressed in a dark suit. "Eep!" he stumbled back, clutching the large, gun-like object to his chest.

"Jaken," Rin said gently, the voices in the study rumbled on, uninterrupted by her soft tones. "Where are you taking that tranquilizer gun?"

"Tranquilizer gun? Do you mean this?'" He shifted the thing nervously in his hands. The glass cartridge visible in the open chamber of the gun sloshed.

"Yes, that. The thing that appears to have elephant-grade darts loaded in it."

"I'm using it for it's excellent spotting scope."

She frowned, "The fairies don't give gifts to those who lie."

Jaken blinked his froggy eyes at her, caught up for a moment in their old children's game, "What gifts? More flowers?"

"Crickets. Are you going to shoot Inuyasha with that?"

"Yes, No! Cut that out." He moved to start fitting a carrying bag, padded out in the shape of an instrument case, over the gun.

"Right." Rin sat down on the step and started pulling on her boots. They were surprisingly sensible boots under all the black snakeskin and pink leather insets.

"What are you doing, you stupid girl?"

"I'm coming with you."

Jaken swung the gun down by his side, almost ready to call Sesshoumaru before he remembered the incriminating item that he was holding. He lifted his hand a bit and looked at the large bore rifle with a faint sense of surprise. Why had he picked that up? It wasn't as if he could claim to be much of a marksman, but he sure did like the heft of the gun. He finished stuffing the gun in the bag and zipped the sides up, completing the illusion of a stringed instrument in a case.

Satisfied that the case was on properly he stepped briskly to the apartment door, Rin was right beside him. He sighed and stopped, "Rin…"

"Shall I tell Sesshoumaru-Sama what you are removing from his apartment or how much your gambling debts are and what you used to pay for them?"

"Rin."

"You are right, that would be crass of me. Perhaps I should just mention whose silk socks you are wearing."

Jaken stopped and goggled at her, dismayed, and then glanced down at his feet in guilt. Rin took the opportunity to step past him and open the apartment door herself.

"Perhaps I should merely inform him that I do not have any friends in Yokohama and that you ran up all those overage charges on the cell phone yourself."

Affronted, he followed her out of the apartment to the elevators, "I never did! It was you who ran up those charges, calling that psychic! And Sesshoumaru doesn't care about the phone bill at all." With a melodious 'ding' the elevator doors slid open, they stepped in. Jaken continued heatedly as they descended to the lobby, "What do you need a psychic for, anyway? You don't believe in them do you?"

Rin led the way out, past the concierge desk and onto the street, "Maybe they are the next best thing to seeing a psychiatrist. I've been through a great deal, you know."

"A psychiatrist? In the name of all the kami, why?" He had to scurry to keep up, the instrument case banging painfully at his shins.

Rin fished deftly in her pocket and brought out a pre-paid rail pass, swiped it and stepped through the turn style to wait courteously on the other side as Jaken fumbled for his. He finally had to pass the instrument case over the fence to her for her to hold as he could not seem to get the proper angle to make the card swipe work.

After a couple of failed attempts and a triumphant, "Ah" he got the card to operate and passed through the gate to board the Nambuka Line. They found a seat on the train as the hour was getting a bit late and Jaken continued his questions earnestly, "Surely, you could just speak to someone."

Rin nibbled at a thumbnail thoughtfully, "Well, I really feel I need to have my thoughts and feelings validated. Not so much to have a conversation or a discussion of give and take, but to work things out on my own and have someone support me wholeheartedly. I need to tell my whole story without any reserve."

Jaken's voice took on a careful tone, "Rin, any psychiatrist would lock you up if you told your true story."

"Yes, I agree. Telephone psychics, however, are very skilled at the game of the verbal stroke. After talking to you a couple of times and having their fees paid without complaint they are willing to listen to you and tell you what a wonderful person you are and how bright your future is without any hesitation at all. It's very consoling. You should try it."

"But it's all a trick!" he fumed.

"Of course, it is. My head knows that but my emotions buy it outright. It must be like a man visiting a prostitute, believing, at least for the moment, when she praises him for being such a great lover."

"It's no such thing! Now, I insist you stay here at home and stop acting so recklessly, you stupid girl!" At this point the train rounded a corner rather sharply and Jaken had to lean against Rin to brace himself. He looked about at the partially filled carriage and back to a slowly smiling Rin.

"They may not be very truthful Jaken-San, but I find their methods very effective. It's an interesting study, don't you think?" The train dipped at this point into the underground, the girl's laugh caught up in the rushing wheels.

----------------------

It was during the morning's travel that Kagome saw it. Her excited pats to Inuyasha's shoulder drew his attention and he slowed his pace to look. Over the tops of the trees of the hill next to the one they were on loomed the partially gilded face of a giant bronze Buddha. Kagome was excited, "That's it! That's what I wanted to see. The Daibutsu is still famous in my time. We could eat lunch there couldn't we?"

Inuyasha shrugged in response, He still was rather quiet this morning, stewing on the fact that there were men that were eating youkai.

With a faint jingle of his staff Miroku stepped up even with them, "You have heard of the Daibutsu, Kagome-Sama? Remarkable, isn't it?"

"Yes, it would be wonderful to take a break there."

"Err, no, I doubt that."

"Why, what do you mean? It's a great tourist destination where I come from and it's so much newer-looking. I can even see the gilt on its cheeks from here."

Miroku blinked a bit, "Well, there was a temple there once, quite a nice one. But it was destroyed in an earthquake almost one hundred years ago. No one has rebuilt a new one and the place has developed an evil reputation as the haunt of beggars and thieves."

"Oh?" Inuyasha showed a faint spark of interest, "Where are they?"

"Huh?"

"Where are they, Bouzu? I smell no smoke from cooking fires and normally, I'd be smelling unwashed human too. All I smell is the sea and the trees even with the breeze blowing in in this direction."

"That's right, we're near the coast," Kagome chimed in. "Can we see it from here?"

Inuyasha pointed out a patch of deeper blue to her, just visible between the hills and urged Kagome onto his back. Even as Sango was stepping up, shielding her eyes from the morning light, they set off, leaving everyone else behind. Sango stood next to Miroku, Kirara on her shoulder, and followed the pair's headlong bounds towards the patchily burnished head of the great bronze Buddha.

She spoke with some surprise, "They're going there?"

Miroku turned his head and smiled at her, "Apparently, it's a great spot to eat lunch."

-----------------------

Sango and Miroku had opted for continuing down the path on foot while Kohaku, with Shippou clinging to his shoulder straps took a more direct route down the slope to finally end up in a skidding run when the bottom of the slope proved to be unexpectedly steep. In a few forced hops Kohaku cleared a line of fallen scree and leaped the narrow brook that wound its way at the bottom. Shippou leaped off and skittered ahead, allowing himself of using both hands and feet heading up the next hill.

Shippou's tail bushed out as he sprang along ahead, letting his palms feel the textures of fallen leaves and twigs with the faintly moist kiss of dirt in between. He never let himself do that in front of Kagome, not if he could help it, it was too undignified. But Kohaku wouldn't care, having developed a catch-as-catch can attitude to life that was a relief to the heart-sore kitsune.

Casting all such concerns aside he scooted to the verge of the animal track he was following as Kohaku surged up past him, breaths coming deeply and evenly in a precise rhythm he had learned as a very young child under the stern tutelage of his father. Shippou sped up, gathering his haunches and sprang to land neatly on the boy's strong shoulders to ride part of the way up.

Kohaku was heading into a growth spurt. He had been rounding slowly out for weeks in the easy life at the village and his clothes were looking a little worn, the chest closure no longer quite covering the areas between the frogs. Soon, the suit would no longer fit.

Kohaku took a leap over a log in his path and landed badly, his forward foot striking something that rolled out from under his heel and sent him down with a grunt and a flurry of kicked-up leaves. Shippou leaped clear with a startled yip and tumbled into a pile of stiff, curved branches that snapped as he struck against them.

Shippou shook his head and hopped back upright, suddenly enveloped in a smell which made him unknowingly lift his lip. He reached to yank at one of the slender branches from its resting place inside of one of the armholes of his fur kataginu and stared at it. It was kind of brown and gray and stank of human.

"Shippou?" Kohaku's voice sounded a bit tense. Shippou tossed the human rib bone aside and found Kohaku balancing a human skull on his fingers. The young taijiya stood partly delineated by sunlight as he contemplated the stinking thing. His companion held his breath as his fingers tightened about the jawless skull. Kohaku moved as if he were about to throw it. A tense moment, and it was gone, "This just never stops does it?"

It was with a sigh of relief that Shippou watched his young friend place the scull carefully to the side of the path and gathered up the rest of the skeleton in double handfuls to place it on the same side of the path in an orderly arrangement. They quickly covered the bones with moss plucked from the ground and a few rocks for protection and sprinted up the path.

--------------------

The party all met again at noon.

Inuyasha and Kagome had spent their time in exploration of the temple precinct and busying them selves with re-establishing a fire pit to use. Inuyasha cursed roundly when he saw the condition of the remaining court. It had obviously been the residence of a generation or two of squatters since the old temple blew down and was not rebuilt and he irritably gathered great armfuls of detritus to cast into a conveniently nearby ravine rather than hear one word about the thrice kami-damned mess.

Kagome, for her part, fashioned a broom made of twigs and swept the old, cracked, pavement clear and enjoyed the distant roar of the surf, even if it did make it a little chilly. She swept her way to the black opening in the foundation beneath the Buddha but did not venture inside as it smelled off.

Instead she settled for a spot just to the lee of the statue and paced across the tiles to where rank weeds were growing up into a huge bundle attached to an over hanging tree. She used a stick and pushed around a bit and then smiled a little sadly. Lady Inada's cenotaph was still there, hidden in the kudzu vines and Kagome could not help but be caught by the difference between her time and this. After all, in her time the cenotaph glowed in the sun and only seemed a little worn. Here, five hundred years in the past, it seemed lost in antiquity.

"Oy!" Inuyasha's voice called out irritably, "Can we get some food going? The others are coming."

Kagome dropped her stick and let the weeds back where they had been, there were other things to do.

--------------------

"Well, Kagome, this is all very nice, and there are no bandits, but we should be going, Sango said as she polished off a really excellent bit of fish cake.

Miroku dropped his horn spoon into his bowl, and looked about himself. "That is odd. I was told to stay away from here; the place was definitely a haunt of bandits after they came to prey on the poor mendicants, may Buddha bless their souls, who were left here after the third temple collapse."

"Well, that shows what you know." Inuyasha said easily. "There's youkai around, I can tell that and I don't see any bandits, and I don't smell any 'Holy Beggars.'"

"Inuyasha,"

Inuyasha concentrated on slurping the last of his noodles. Shippou spoke reluctantly. "There are some skeletons in the woods…Kohaku tripped over one of the skulls in the woods."

Kohaku sat up, "No less than you sat in a ribcage and ended up with bones through your vest!" and flicked a bit of fish at Shippou.

Shippou picked straight up on this and flicked an acorn at Kohaku which was caught in midair by Inuyasha's hand, which would have been fine if that had been the only consequence. Kagome had just dropped her bowl of miso soup down from her face when the trailing tail of Inuyasha's sleeve caught it and sent it down her front.

Kagome gave an irritated squeal as she found herself sopped in cold miso and felt her saturated shirt sag against her stomach with it's assorted sea food ingredients.

Inuyasha promptly reached over to pick up a shrimp off of her belly with his claws, "Inuuyaashaa…"

Inuyasha flicked his eyes up at her under his bangs "My, I'm "frightened,"" and reached for a ring of sliced fish cake.

"GEROFF!" And she swiped him upside the head with the damp towel she had beside her to clean the utensils off. "I'm going and changing!" with that she jumped up and grabbed for her spare clothes, and the spare water bottle and marched off in blind bravery down the steps and underneath the dark area of the Buddha to change in peace.

It was surprisingly bare in there, the walls were lined in blocks that none of the assorted dwellers had ever succeeded in breaking. It was a relief from the sea wind that had been blowing across the headland they were on all afternoon and Kagome wondered why she hadn't ventured in before. There was no garbage or anything disturbing to be seen, and she could see surprisingly well in the darkness of the interior of the statue; straight up to the purest bronze gleams of its neck where the black hollow of its head rested above. She knew that at least in her time there was a ladder that was provided by the tourist board for those who paid and were fit to climb up and sit in the head of the Buddha.

She tried not to think about it and concentrated on stripping off her shirt and bra and dousing herself with the water from her bottle.

"Brr! Nasty! This stuff is so gross on you! Geh!"

Her voice was both deadened and reversed upon itself within the chamber that she was in and Kagome stopped herself biting her lower lip. But she was still covered in stuff, and as she looked down she saw another broad yellow streak of miso straight down the side of her skirt.

"You know what? I'm going to whip Inuyasha with a rattail for this! Disgusting! My poor clothes! Why do they always get ruined here!"

There was a slightly grinding sound and dust sifted down from above, landing on her newly wet skin. She looked up. "Is there someone there?"

A bloated red face looked down, lights catching in it's myriad eyes. "Hallo, lovely…"

------

TBC!


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Kagome stared up at the apparition leering down towards her through the dark gap to the statue's hollow head. The creature's mouth widened horribly, opening to reveal fish-like teeth. With a gasp Kagome backed up toward the verdigris covered walls of the statue. She bumped against something solid and gave an embarrassingly high pitched squeal for help. The sound of her voice fell dead in the muffled enclosure of the statue and the monster never stopped looking at her. She was frozen by the sight as the youkai gave a slight belch and vomited forth a flood of webbing. That sticky spray hit her like the sudden douse of water from an old, over-filled, garden hose right after it snaps out of a kink.

Immediately, she was enveloped in a musty film. Her head cracked backwards from the force of the blow even as her hands flew up to protect her face. The web seemed to have active filaments which sought out her eyes and nose and even her mouth. Her arms flailed in a frantic response to the assault, clutching at the strands in an attempt to at least clear her nostrils. Sounds seemed completely muffled and her heartbeat thundered in her ears. One out-flung hand encountered what seemed to be a squishy spot in what surrounded her and broke through into an empty area. She reached for balance even as her arm was seized in an unbreakable grip and she was pulled through a gap into someplace else.

•••

Which is why Inuyasha found the interior of the great Buddha statue empty when he leapt down into the interior an instant later. He stopped and stared about as Miroku clattered down the broken steps and then slid the last couple of feet fetching up against his rigid back.

"Oh, err, sorry."

In the dim light from the narrow entrance behind them they could see Kagome's shirt lying crumpled in a corner and a twist of spider web hanging from the ceiling drifting slowly upon the breeze of their passage.

Inuyasha hissed to himself and muttered, "Crap, where is she?" before drawing a breath to shout, "Kagome!" There was the faint singing of an echo from above when he raised his voice, "Kagome-e-ee!"

Dull whispers were the response from the sand on the floor.

They could sense youki in the air and checked the walls and floor quickly for any strong traces. Inuyasha found Kagome's water bottle and her bra in the shadows and his brows rose into his hair at that. A splotch of sticky webbing dangled from the wall above his find and he could taste the sweat of her fear on the air. Failing to find any disturbance on the ground or wall he looked up at the empty aperture leading to the head high above him and unhesitatingly leaped up to catch at the lip of it. A furious grunt and pull and he was through the neck into the close darkness of the head. Objects rattled away beneath his hands, but no one was there. He hurriedly swept everything he could off of the small space that formed the chin of the statue and let himself drop back to the ground.

Sango called in from the entrance, "What's going on?"

Miroku backed up, trying to assess the situation. He could hear Sango telling Kohaku and Shippou to stay put and be quiet. A moment later and she was easing herself down the crumpled slope of the steps in a slow approach, "We need a light," he said.

"Kitsune-bi." Shippou's voice rang slightly in the stillness, echoing around the interior of the statue and catching weirdly in the head only to be refracted back at them in an oddly flat tone that sounded like a murmur. Both boys were already at the foot of the stairs in defiance of Sango, eyes glittering, looking almost greedy in the suddenly illuminated dark. Shippou's foxfire hung just above the floor in a bluish glare by which they could see Inuyasha searching the dusty area about him in a tense silence, shaking out his sleeves and scattering stray detritus.

Miroku watched as the hanyou swept his hands around, peering at all the scattered bits. A good many of them appeared to be gold coins so far as he could tell but Inuyasha chucked those aside with a huff, muttering to himself in a frantic undertone. The others advanced, drawn in by puzzlement at his actions.

"Uh, Inuyasha," Miroku ventured, "Kagome-sama is missing."

Inuyasha's head whipped about so fast that there was an audible crack from the region of his neck. Miroku found himself facing a mouthful of gleaming fangs, "Thanks for the information, Bouzu. I already knew that!" Inuyasha bit his words off as if he wished to take the monk's nose with them, "Now, help me look." He returned to scooping through the scattered debris and sifting them through his fingers in a hurried clatter.

The others dropped to their knees alongside him except for Shippou who renewed his flare and brought it up higher to shine down on their work. Sango started sorting the trash out for size and type but she noted Inuyasha seemed to be grabbing for pebbles and chips of wood. She licked her lips and spoke up, "Inuyasha, what is it you are trying to find? We can't be much help if we don't know what we're looking for."

Inuyasha grunted in response then slowed his busy hands. He spoke reluctantly, reaching into the top of his suikan as he did so, "Bits such as these. Every greater daemon carries them. _They're _doorways." He drew out a tiny mesh bag that he wore about his neck and spilled its contents into his cupped palm. The others leaned in closer to look only to see slivers of wood and flat rocks scarcely the size of a thumbnail before the hanyou's clawed fingers closed over them again and the little stash was poured back into the bag.

Shippou exclaimed with interest, eyes wide, "My father had one of those stones on a thong about his neck. He said it was to be used only for emergencies or the rice god Inari would be mad."

Inuyasha gave him a level look and turned back to business, "Good, so you've seen them, there has to be something like that here."

"You mean like this?" Kohaku's grubby fingers extended holding a shiny piece of feldspar. Inuyasha grabbed it from him to slap it down on the pavement and surge upwards, setting his foot firmly over it.

Nothing happened.

"Fuck!"

Still nothing happened.

Shippou leapt to his feet and clenched his tiny fists, looking as fierce as an under-sized kitsune could, "Inuyasha, that is an entry that belongs to another daemon! You would have to be a stronger daemon than the creator to break the barrier and enter. Face it, you are only a hanyou. Let me try." He tugged at Inuyasha's bloused hakama ineffectively as the hanyou stared down at his own foot with a bemused expression.

"Kagome's in trouble," growled the kitsune, "get off and let me do it."

With an efficient sweep of his arm, Inuyasha knocked the kitsune aside and moved his foot just enough to nip the stone out from underneath of it.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Stand back all of you."

The foxfire had vanished when Shippou was knocked over but none of them needed it to see what it was that Inuyasha did next. The blast of raw youki let them know. One moment he stood there, frustrated and tense, staring at a small rock held before him between his claws, the next moment his face darkened and his hair lifted on a non-existent breeze. The claws that held the rock were appreciably longer and stripes let themselves be known across his cheeks. Inuyasha spared them one glance out of eyes that glimmered red before he threw the rock down into the dust in front of him.

Everyone flung themselves back to the walls sure that he had gone berserk as the creature that had been their friend pounced to land squarely on the bit of rock in a crouch, only to disappear with a faint popping noise.

Silence reigned absolute before Shippou spoke up in an oddly studied voice for one so young, "What the hell just happened? He's not supposed to be able to do that."

After a pause, Sango answered him, "I think Inuyasha turned voluntarily into a powerful youkai, Shippou."

Miroku coughed and shook out his robes before turning to assist Sango up, "I agree, I think he did. There was something I saw when he rescued me from the burning temple. He said he would explain later."

Kohaku dusted his knees off matter-of-factly and stood up, "So. Inuyasha used the jewel's power to gain control of his blood. An effective wish for him I would say and a good use for the Shikon-noTama after all. Better than the use Naraku would have made."

Sango turned to her brother, distress written large upon her face, "Otouto… "

Kohaku smiled. Perhaps the smile was a little thin about the edges and maybe his face was pale to whiteness, but he did smile. "It's alright, Ane-ue," he said, "I remember nearly everything. I've been slowly recovering the memories all this time."

Sango gasped as the others remained silent.

"Please don't worry about me, Ane-ue, it doesn't help." He walked over to the scuff in the dust marking where Inuyasha had so lately been and clicked his tongue in a 'tsk,' as he bent over to observe the piece of feldspar left on the ground before sitting down next to it, "I guess we'd better wait."

------------------------

Inuyasha tore into a new space of close breath and silvered light such as he had never seen before. He came in at a slight stumble, knocking all that was moveable before him. His feet tangled up in what seemed to be branches before he landed on some sort of soft ground.

That appeared to be sifted ash and he had to flail his arms wildly on the slope before he gained his balance. There were black branches above and about him, filled with cobwebs with thumb-sized black spiders in the odd angles of the branches and the crooks of the trees. He was standing on a pile of ashen branches that were caught up into a fall from whence they would surely let go and collapse were he to take so much as a step forward.

"Fuck this," he said to himself, glancing up from his feet and out across the tumbled snarl of wood. His view was of a land that appeared to be comprised entirely of black forest and gentle, ash covered, downs. No paths were visible and the opportunity to see it was not at all helpful. In fact, it made for a rather ghostly image. The only things that stood out were the trees and not even those where the grayish ash piled high. Of Kagome, there was no sign.

He stepped backward, feeling for a solid footing. But near as he could tell, everything was made of loosely piled branches drowned in the soft white ash.

"Kagome!" he called. No answer. He waited a moment, then shouted, "KAGOME!"

The branches of the trees gestured, or so it seemed to him. It wasn't true though, they were growing tendrils even as he watched; new twigs, new offshoots. The powdery stack of branches beneath him let go and slid further down the slope even as he leaped up to a sturdy limb far overhead, calling upon his youkai power as he did so. Once secure on the branch he cast around again. From up here the ground, if ground you could call it, was even more difficult to understand. There seemed to be a mist creeping in amongst the trees that obscured everything. He tensed and called again, "Kagome!"

The branch he was on actually gave a jerk as it grew into a longer limb. Inuyasha set his claws into the living wood under him as the forest about grew once again.

"Crap."

Twigs appeared in seeming response. He stared at the mesh of black branches he was in and gave things a bit of thought.

"I think you all are a bunch of poncy gits," he said experimentally. He promptly was poked in the ass by the twigs exploding below as the forest tightened up more.

"You are so going to die when I find and kill your master!" To his surprise the twigs backed off a bit, "You don't care? How could that be?"

The branches grew and twisted about themselves in response to his voice.

"You lot are shitass pitiful as Kami. You are traitors."

The twisted twigs tightened and many broke off with muffled cracks. Inuyasha stared in confusion; his words were killing them? Something was killing them? Something was dead? He wrinkled his brow in thought, "Who's killing whom?"

More twigs split and cracked and Inuyasha jumped as a large branch splintered and fell down from quite near him.

"Fine, something is wrong. Give me the way to my wife, Kagome, and I will free you from the one who holds you thus unjustly."

Everything was still.

Inuyasha bounced on his branch slightly, "_Come on _assholes, show me the way to your leader."

The open area around him started to close, tightening up.

"Shit, don't you know where your master is?" The branch he was standing upon lurched forward, becoming the beginning of an open road of sorts, roofed and floored with black branches against the silver air. Inuyasha looked down the midair pathway that had been presented to him. He drew a breath, and, taking the hint, began to run.

----------

"Bring me water!"

"W-water? Of course water. But you're already dripping. That was all the water there was in the house." The girl cringed away from the thing, which was beginning to stink of something unmentionable that had been kept festering too long. She tucked the ends of the brown scarf she had found in the hut more firmly into her waist band. It was a bit too fringy for true modesty but the creature hadn't objected and it was going have to do in place of a shirt.

It thrust its head forward, "Try the yard. There must be a well." The flesh of its face dripped but the girl could see dried crusts upon it. Its eyes were dull.

"Is there a well? Sorry to ask, but it's your yard after all. _Isn't_ it?" Kagome blinked expectantly at her captor while the critter twitched. She felt something that was almost pity mixed in with her disgust as the skin of it flaked and split to drip.

"Just get it!" The creature levered itself partway up off of the cushion it was resting upon, using the elbow rests that it had on either side. It flopped down incontinently again and rested a weary forehead against one fingertip, digging a whitish gouge of lifted skin as the heavy head sank down.

The girl watched in a sort of sick fascination as the head twisted into the pocket made by the neck and shoulder in an angle far more deep than it should have been able to do in nature. A malevolent greenish eye slid open and stuck beneath a drying lid as the creature focused on the girl, "Get! Bring me water!"

Kagome grabbed the buckets from the corner and stepped out of the doorway of the bizarre cottage to ease herself warily to the ground.

When they had arrived, the hut had been standing on what appeared to be a pair of scaly legs ending in clawed bird feet. At a command from her captor, the hut had crouched down permitting them to enter, Kagome had struggled uselessly all the while to get loose but to no avail.

The yard didn't look promising. The ashy ground was barren and the twisted black limbs of the trees beyond bore no foliage. She stepped along carefully, the little puffs of dust turning her feet white. Almost immediately, tiny black tendrils shot up from the ground and caught at her toes and ankles.

"Please let me go! I mean no harm! Your mistress wants water. I only want to go home." Kagome gabbled in a rapid litany that was partially born by fear.

The tendrils tightened in response and then released. All of the sudden the yard area exploded into a sort of flat lawn of black grass leaving a white ash path around to the back of the cottage. Kagome followed the path swiftly, trying not to think, but finding herself speaking all the while, "Good; let's get this water and get on with things. My name is Kagome. Someone is looking for me. _He's_ wearing red." She turned the corner to the back of the cottage and broke off in dismay, "This is the well? How can I get water out of that?"

It was an odd one, to be sure. The well was clearly old and was surrounded by a crumbling circle of stone. A thick, black, branch hung low above it but no rope or pulley system was in evidence. Kagome approached the stone lip dubiously and looked in.

There was only a pool of darkness within, no scent of moisture such as there normally would be. The liquid, if liquid it was, touched the brim as if it were an over-filled cup and no light or reflection broke its dead surface. She stared in for a moment and then, with a furtive look around at the back of the brooding hut, dipped her buckets into the blackness. One never knew, odder things had happened in her experience than a water pool made of dark.

Sure enough, the buckets gained weight when drawn up and appeared to be full of water when drawn out. Kagome looked into the 'water' sure of its unwholesomeness and concerned about those which would take sustenance from such strange stuff. She breathed over the surface of the water in the bucket and it lost its opacity, showing clear to the bottom and smelling rather sweet.

So, it could be purified. Kagome was pleased to know it and sat back on her heels. She felt a tickle by her leg and glanced down. Some of the black tendrils were stroking her feeling up towards the water. On impulse she splashed a bit of purified water on them and then rose letting her buckets slosh freely on the way back to the house. She hurried in and dumped the purified water over the suffering creature, making sure to wet it thoroughly.

It gave a bubbling groan, its face hidden, as its back began to smoke. Kagome winced at the sight but whirled away, elbows akimbo, buckets swinging to head back to the well for another load. She nearly took a header over the rag rug that appeared underfoot but marched on irregardless.

The path around the cottage to the well was now outlined in pebbles and there seemed to be the veriest hint of a haze of green over the black root tendrils that comprised the lawn but she ignored them all in favor of getting and purifying the water.

Within a moment she had reached the well and drawn the water, letting her hands infuse a glow of purifying pink through the handles and into the bucket. She ran eagerly back.

--------------------------------------

Inuyasha came to the end of the trees in a rush and halted, peering down into the odd garden that surrounded a ramshackle thatched hut. It was of the sort that seemed almost an accident of nature, only it wasn't. From his vantage point he could see numerous sets of unshod footprints leading around the tattered sides to a shallow pit and then back again. There were pale, oddly fleshy, flowers that were growing in random, strips off of the foot track. Otherwise, the yard was covered in the ubiquitous black tendrils which swiftly molded into the surrounding wood.

He was fairly sure that the tracks were those of Kagome even though the dust of the place stuffed his nose and seemed to dull his other senses as well. He considered his options and leapt to land on the thatched roof of the hut. With a bizarre lurch the hut surged upwards and started picking its way around the yard on legs for all the world as if it were a chicken. A clatter of a shutter signified a window opening and Kagome's voice called out in some irritation.

"Now, you cut that out! Can't you see we have someone sick in here?"

Inuyasha promptly wormed his way over the thatch and dropped his head upside down over the shallow eave. Kagome stood on the other side of the open window wearing little more than a brown scarf draped napkin wise over her front and what appeared to be a frilly apron over her jeans.

"Eek, a monster!" She squealed and slapped the window shut in his face, blocking his view inside.

Inuyasha remained hanging upside down grimly considering things as the hut ceased its antics and settled down in a new spot rather closer to the shallow pit. He knocked gently at the window frame.

"Who is it?" Kagome's voice sang out chirpily.

"It's the doctor." Inuyasha's voice caroled in return in a syrupy manner that would have tipped the regular Kagome off in a splintered instant.

TBC


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The shutter slid back open with a clack and Inuyasha lost no time in bringing his body into the casement on a smooth roll, knocking a startled Kagome aside. He came up drawing Tetsusaiga but the blade remained untransformed in his still daemon hand. Nevertheless, he let the sword swing him around as if on a pivot pointing him towards the greatest threat.

What he found at the end of his sword didn't even respond to his presence. Its head, swathed in black hair, continued to droop down to the table at which it sat. Inuyasha could hear Kagome scrambling to her feet and gave a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that she was all right.

She looked a little confused and was tugging at the scarf she had hung about her neck in a vain attempt to preserve her modesty even as she reached to pick up a pair of water buckets.

Inuyasha was staring at her, nonplussed, when the creature before him shifted, "Water," it croaked without lifting its head. "Bring me water."

"Hai," chirped Kagome and startled Inuyasha considerably by trotting straight past him and on out through the door.

"Oi!" he called after her but she ignored him. Keeping the point of his sword angled towards the creature slouching at the table, he swiveled his body to follow the girl's progress across the ashen ground. She went straight to the shallow pit he had noted on his way in and drew the buckets through the dust, filling each to the brim with the feathery stuff.

The slender muscles of her arms knotted and she gave a grunt as she lifted the buckets, obviously balancing a heavy weight against her own. Jaki was present in those buckets when they were drawn up, jaki that faded quickly away to the smell of pure ocean in Kagome's purifying grasp. He watched in fascination as she returned, buckets sloshing carelessly from side to side. It certainly seemed like water when it splashed out and the dark twisting growth changed its nature wherever the water hit. Within moments, a thick stock shot up out of the bare twigs of the black undergrowth paling into a round white head which looked a bit like a skull.

Inuyasha thought so anyway and, if so, then the analogy was carried a bit further as each stock burst into a fleshy bloom, complete with pink lips. He turned away and watched Kagome as she climbed back into the cottage. She excused herself as she sought to pass and he automatically stepped aside. She then made her way across the crowded floor space and liberally dowsed the creature at the table. It gave an ecstatic moan and sat up for a moment, lifting a head upon which the features seemed to be melting.

"Ah, my vitality returns." Its voice was thick and gluey and there was a faint acidic smell in the air. It moved its hands, pressing against the table top. "But the water, it burns! I cannot see! What are you doing to the water, girl?"

"Bringing it to you just as you asked, Grandmother." Kagome's smile was vacant. "Shall I do the dusting now?"

"No I…"

Inuyasha cut in, "What the Hell is going on here? Kagome, get away from that thing, don't you see me?" He set his hand on her shoulder and she looked at him as if she'd never met him before. A swift pang ran through his heart.

The dripping mass at the table came waveringly upright. "Who's there? Damn, my eyes, I can't see. What have you done to me, brat?" The bloated face turned blindly, "Who are you? Intruder, get away from here!"

Kagome blinked vaguely up at Inuyasha and smiled as she spoke, "It's the doctor, Grandmother. You know you need one because you're sick."

"What the hell? Kagome, wake up!"

"GAH!" The creature spat a thick glob of goo in their general direction and it hit the wall with a splat.

"Do that again and I'll obliterate you." Inuyasha snarled. "What have you done to Kagome? Release her!"

"What have I done to her? Look what she's done to me! I think she's poisoned the well somehow, evil wench."

Inuyasha tightened his grip on Kagome's shoulder. She seemed inclined to start doing housework and kept trying to wander towards the broom that stood in cobwebby splendor in one corner.

"Evil yourself," he grunted. "Can't you see that she's purifying the jaki of that…" he took a heavy sniff and sneezed a bit at the acidic smell underpinned by notes of saline, "ocean water she's been drawing for you? What the hell do you want with ocean water anyway? In case you didn't know, the ocean is a few miles off." He cautiously kept the Tetsusaiga leveled at that youkai's breast.

With a bubbling sigh the ocean youkai resumed its seat. "It was an accident. I never meant to be here. But a girl has to eat, you know? There was a tsunami and I was swept up in a tidal wave into the temple's forecourt. The youkai who originally had residence here was very old and quiet and didn't mind if I was nearby. There was enough to eat," It made a smacking sound with its lips, and Inuyasha firmed his stance and frowned. "enough to eat indeed, as the temple was abandoned. The bonzes had no money and didn't stay around here once the temple buildings were gone on the backwash of the great wave.

"Things were peaceful for a time with good pickings but then all that trouble started. Youkai were being swept up right and left, but being an ocean youkai myself, I clung to the rocks around here like a limpet."

"So, what happened to the old youkai?"

"I hear tell that he was eaten by that foul fiend, that tainted hanyou, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha's face bloomed red and his jaw dropped open on an inhalation ready to bark out a furious denial. Kagome twitched aside from his fingertips and went humming to the corner to retrieve the broom. His claw snagged momentarily on the scarf she was wearing and pulled it askew, but she didn't notice. His eyes flickered over at the human girl uncertainly as the monster slouched at the table grunted it's misery.

"What makes you think that the one who caused all this trouble was a hanyou?" He asked, returning his attention to the subject.

"It was a powerful hanyou that pulled the old temple youkai out of this den, that's certain. It must have been that foul hanyou, Inuyasha. That's what I heard."

"It was a hanyou, but the hanyou's name was Naraku."

"Never heard of him. It was the hanyou, Inuyasha, killing swaths and armies of fighting youkai. Sucking their lives and subverting their sacred power to his purposes."

"That isn't right!"

"The only ones who survived came back wounded terribly, and spoke of the terrible Inuyasha, dressed in robes of crimson fire rat, and slaughtering indiscriminately along with a great many insults!"

Inuyasha was taken aback. "That isn't so, you've got it wrong! It was somebody else."

"Oh? Then why have I never heard of anyone else?"

"Because they didn't survive to tell the tale! That's why!"

"Likely story."

"It's true damn it!"

"How would you know, youngster? I myself took over this spot of safety when the temple youkai was wrenched from this plane of existence and impressed into durance vile in the nether world. What could you know of it!"

"Cannot you understand it, yet? I am that other hanyou, I fought Naraku, and he has been destroyed. But all the other lives were lost with him."

The creature gave a wet sniff. "You are not a hanyou, you are a youkai and attempting to take over my refuge!"

"I…" he began hotly and clenched his hands. His claws prickled a bit, causing him to look down at them. Oh yes, he could see the traces of youki wreathed about his fists, tracing in and out of his fingertips. "Oh yeah. I forgot. I'm not really--" at this point Kagome stepped into his line of vision quietly sweeping the floor, her scarf rucked up over one shoulder and exposing her breasts without her taking any notice.

Inuyasha inhaled. "Yeah, I'm not a hanyou…I'm a full youkai! Die, you lying mother fucker!" And with that he lunged forward his left hand grasping for the other youkai's neck. Before he could complete the lunge, a sudden blow from a heavy weight struck him on the back of the head and knocked him off balance.

He spun in place almost casually only to bring himself into a full stop, his sword within a breath of resting against the side of an oblivious Kagome's throat. She was winding up for another swing with the well bucket. He gasped in dismay and was rotating away from her, bringing the sword in line to accomplish a cut against the daemon across the table from him when a blob of the daemon's goo hit him square in the chest and knocked him hard against Kagome's body.

The force of the blow drove both his arms back and he found himself effectively bound to the wall by his shoulders and wrists. A good jerk wasn't sufficient to release him on the first try and he gave vent to a surprised growl as he tested the strength of the stuff that held him. It gave in an irritatingly elastic manner and snapped his wrists right back to where they had been before.

The bucket in Kagome's hand swung against his head again and smacked him in the ear, stinging it badly. She was pinned to the wall by his left arm, thankfully shielded from the swiftly-hardening slime by the hanging sleeve of his suikan, but she still had use of her hands and a grip on the bucket. She whacked his ear again.

"Damn it!"

There was the sound of a nasty laugh from across the table. Inuyasha looked to see the hag dragging herself to her feet to shuffle along the table guided by her hands running along the edge of it. "You weren't expecting that were you, my fine young fellow? Not many youkai can fight against the power of my cement. Now let's have a look at you. My eyes may be weak but my glance still has power in it and if I send my glare against that pretty little girl of yours, it will be the death of her. All I need to do is come close."

The creature lifted its head and opened its unnaturally large eyes. They glowed with the opalescent blue-green of a horse fly's myriad optics. The strange beauty of them was made all the more horrible by the travesty of the creature's ruined face.

With a grunt, Inuyasha wrenched his right arm free, ripping the magically tough fabric of the fire rat suikan in the process and leaving both it and the right sleeve of his kosode behind on the wall. He braced himself for a moment's desperate concentration, jamming his left elbow back against Kagome's face to prevent further attack from that quarter.

The creature had drawn near but it paused just out of reach of the old katana. It tilted its head at an almost coquettish angle and lifted a hand, one long clawed fingertip to rest on the tip of Tetsusaiga.

"You think to skewer me with that, boy? Your aura shows you should be able to handle better than that. They really short-changed you at the junkshop didn't they? No matter, it will all come out the same in the end. Old Gyofu has been in this business a long time." The creature widened its eyes and opened its mouth revealing its transparent glistening fangs. "Hold still," it slurred, "this won't hurt…much."

It took another step and stopped, four and a half feet of glowing steel transfixing what should have been its heart.

Inuyasha smiled unpleasantly, "Why you are right, Grandmother, I don't feel a thing."

A choked whisper reached his ears, "The hanyou, Inuyasha." The light was already fading from the sea hag's eyes but it was close enough now to see the red of the fire rat and perceive the unmistakable aura of a hanyou. How had she been deceived?

"User of depraved magic."

He leaned forward a bit, "I didn't do it!"

Silence from the dying youkai on his blade, then, "Murderer and devourer of youkai." It wheezed, searching for breath. "Are you out to kill us all?"

With a flare, the power of the sword responded to his will and blasted both the sea hag and the backside of the hut into smithereens.

0000000000000000

It was mid afternoon and Miroku was sitting in meditative watch on the pavement underneath the Buddha when there was a disturbance in the air that caught his attention. An instant later, Inuyasha and Kagome made their appearance with the concern of a couple of truant children climbing out of a cupboard they have been hiding in, Inuyasha helping the girl down to floor level.

Inuyasha was shirtless and carried a large bundle of black twigs wrapped up in the remains of his suikan. Kagome wore his white kosode minus the right sleeve and tied tightly at the waist by a brightly colored scarf with long fringes. They were both covered in a generous amount of grayish dust. With a final, faint, pop the portal closed behind them.

Miroku relaxed and let the hand holding the sealing ofuda drop, clearly it wasn't needed. "So, you are here," he said by way of greeting. "We weren't sure when you would be back and have set up camp for the night."

Kagome blushed and pushed a hank of dusty hair behind her ear. "Were we gone that long? I lost track."

Inuyasha grunted and brushed past Miroku on his way out slinging his bundle over his shoulder. With a quick hop he was up the ruined steps and out the door.

"That's very nice of you, Inuyasha, but we don't need any more "firewood," Miroku called out after him. "We found plenty in the forest."

"I don't think he intends to burn them," Kagome said quietly.

Miroku turned to her and shrugged with a smile, "Perhaps not. A memento of your travels?"

"In a way. Is there, " with a gesture of her hand she indicated her dusty state.

Miroku nodded instantly. "Indeed, how remiss of me. There is a nice stream just on the other side of the hill and Sango has your clothes waiting."

Kagome made for the exit, finding that she had been cured for life of any interest in spending time inside the Great Buddha.

The others had been busy while they were gone and a cozy little camp awaited them in the lee of the statue, groundsheets now strung up protecting the fire from the wind over the headland and one of Kagome's battery-powered lamps hanging up above illuminating the area. The sun was setting in a blaze of red glory and Kagome frowned to see how long she had spent under the sea hag's spell. What if Inuyasha hadn't been able to get in?

The subject of her thoughts knelt near the fire with his suikan spread on the cracked pavement before him. On it, he was lining up twigs in some order of his own while Kohaku and Shippou watched intently. His dust streaked arms, muscles sliding smoothly underneath the skin, stretched out, drew back and stretched out again as he placed the small bundles of black in a wide circle about the red, leaving one alone in the center.

Without raising his head to look at her, he lifted one hand and gestured her over with clawed fingertips. "Kagome, do you know where the tomb of the founder of this place is?"

Kagome looked surprised, hesitated and then smiled, "Lady Inada, of course, I found her cenotaph among the kudzu vines just this morning. It's over there." She pointed towards the front of the statue where the forest had found a purchase on the broken pavement and the vines draped the lower branches of the trees, encouraged by the sun.

He nodded and gathered up the small central bundle of twigs and made his way, trailed by the rest to where the vines draped thickest. There Kagome pulled them aside to reveal the solitary basalt pillar with its dedicatory inscription hidden within them. Inuyasha stepped past her and then swept then kudzu vines away with one impatient pull, bringing them down in a pile to the pavement. He knelt and thrust the end of his bundle of black twigs down into a space between the paving stones at his feet, leaving them to stand up like some beheaded bouquet. He was still a moment and then rose to confront his audience.

"Right," he said. "Do you two get it?"

The boys nodded solemnly while the adults in the group looked on in confusion.

"All the way a-round, right?" Kohaku asked and at Inuyasha's nod they trotted back to the fire and gathered carefully opposed bundles of twigs from the perimeter of Inuyasha's circle and then retuned to stand back to back with the original bundle standing up between. Inuyasha looked at them critically and nodded to let them go and Kohaku and Shippou trotted off in a bee-line in completely opposite directions.

Kagome stared after Shippou, chewing her lip, remembering their final circuitous route back out to Inuyasha's entry point. That path had been circular and Inuyasha had paused to gather small bundles of twigs at intervals. Perhaps he hadn't been searching for the way out after all.

"Are you trying to give that ashen forest a chance, Inuyasha?" she finally ventured.

"Just trying to give the kami of it a way to maybe find some rest, Kagome," He replied. His arms were folded and his great mane of hair blew about him in the breeze, but the chill of the advancing darkness troubled him not at all. In fact, he looked pleased, "This will take awhile; why don't you get cleaned up?"

Kagome looked down at herself ruefully, brushing at the ashen smuts off the suikan and heard Sango's rich chuckle. Within a few moments Sango had her to the side of the bubbling natural well for a briskly chill scrub up and a change into fresh clothes. Kagome sponged at the kosode in a dubious manner and gave it up as a bad job. Inuyasha was going to have to deal with his wardrobe problems in his own way. She couldn't help wondering just how far he was willing to let the others into his secrets.

She was destined to find out a little later as they sat around the fire dunking small bits of miso-cured meat in a communal pot of broth. Inuyasha appeared out of the shadows fully attired in faultless crimson.

Miroku looked at him speculatively, "Nice clean-up job, Inuyasha."

"Up yours, Bouzu."

"Don't you usually have to wait a night for your stuff to magically clean itself?"

"Shut-up. My clothes don't magically repair themselves overnight. Since when were you so interested in my laundry?"

"Since you have become a full youkai twice before all our eyes without losing yourself or having it forced on you, disappeared into and re-appeared out of thin air and have now walked into camp with perfectly repaired clothing."

Shippou snorted, "That clothing isn't repaired, it's new."

Sango's voice spoke up from the other side of the fire while Kagome cringed. "How could that be? I always thought Inuyasha's clothing was magically impervious and self-repairing."

Inuyasha lifted his eyes over to where Kagome twiddled with her food instead of eating it. He kept his gaze upon her while he spoke. "My suikan no hakama is a magical suit. It is as strong as armor and impervious to acid and fire. It can be torn or dirtied though and when it is I go through to my home and put on a new suit, leaving the ruined one behind. Ask Kagome, she has seen my home."

The three humans looked from one to the other; Inuyasha staring at Kagome and Kagome, red faced, staring at the ground.

Shippou's eyes glittered green in the darkness at the edge of the fire's glow. He had withdrawn from the group and was barely visible on the slope of the giant Buddha's robes.

"So you've been using your sanctuary all along. I'm a full youkai and I can only access mine once or twice in my lifetime unless I become very ancient. How did you work that out? If my father had access to such a place he would never have died."

Inuyasha pinched the bridge of his nose and searched for patience. As always, it was thin on the ground. "Shippou, I don't know about you, that's up to your god, Inari. I could live in mine but I choose not to. This world here is one hell of a lot more interesting than a silent house. And, until she accepted me and I her, I couldn't have taken Kagome there either. I stayed with you people always, even on my human nights, because her safety was my responsibility."

Miroku prodded at a poorly burning log with the end of his staff. "And the transformations? That's definitely something new. It's been since Naraku was destroyed, right? I thought that Kagome-Sama purified him and that Sesshoumaru was there."

Kagome spoke up, "The true final fragment was there as well. Sesshoumaru picked it up. But, the fragment joined the stone and it was pure, having been purged In the destruction of Naraku. He said he didn't care what it was and gave it to Inuyasha, telling him to keep out of the way."

Inuyasha snorted, "I kept to my end but Sesshoumaru hasn't kept out of mine. He lives in Kagome's world now. He found his own way through."

Kohaku spoke carefully; it was a painful subject for him after all. "Then, what about the jewel, did you use it?"

Inuyasha concentrated on tossing pebbles into the fire. "Yeah, I used it. I asked for the control of my blood."

Miroku sighed softly, "Really. That is beneficial. Does Sesshoumaru know?"

Inuyasha gave a faint laugh. "Yeah, I ended up showing him."

"Showing him what?" Sango wanted to know. Inuyasha didn't speak but danger gathered about him like a mountain assumes a cloak of fog. Everyone edged away except for Kagome who flashed an apologetic glance at Sango before scooting herself closer to the former hanyou and taking his hand.

Inuyasha lifted his eyes and they glowed a feral red in the firelight, his cheeks were darkly striped with bands of purple. Then it faded, Inuyasha's eyes shown molten amber, the cat-like slits of his pupils clearly visible. The pupils stayed the same but the eyes darkened to a tawny brown. The hair grayed to a starless black and his ears seemed to either fold themselves away or slide out of sight until those watching him found themselves staring at the same nearly human boy that they also knew as Inuyasha for all the moon was three quarters full and just lifting above the trees.

"Ah," breathed a fascinated Miroku. "So that's how it is. Very convenient."

Inuyasha nodded and resumed his hanyou appearance to find Shippou at his elbow sniffing him. "Do you mind?"

"Yes I do. Yep, he changes his blood, no illusion. Not like I care." The kitsune turned his back.

"Other youkai," Inuyasha said the words reluctantly. "Are lying shits. But they usually remember things for a long time."

"Yeah. So?" Shippou agreed. "You're a liar too."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Have you ever heard any other youkai talking about Naraku?"

The kitsune turned his head at that. "Huh? No. You know how hard we had to search for clues. Naraku was almost impossible to find."

"Do you ever hear them mention me?"

"Do you think I would ever ask?"

"Well, start asking and pay attention to the answers." He turned his attention. "Miroku, are you still intending to track down Mushin?"

Miroku shook his head. "I think I have changed my mind. I think I want an interview with the Emperor's general Nobunaga."

Kagome perked up at that. "Ooh, that would be so neat. I've always wanted to meet someone famous." She faltered as everyone just stared at her. "Well, it would be neat," she said defensively.

Sango patted her arm. "I'm sure he would be happy to meet you too." The others switched their stares to her. "What?"

Inuyasha snorted and confined his remarks to Miroku. "Do you think you can get access to him?"

"I think it can be arranged, yes. He's building a new castle some days north of here."

"Good, head in that direction and I will catch you up. I think I have to ask Sesshoumaru a few questions and that means I need to go through the well. Kagome, are you coming with me or staying with them?"

She didn't hesitate long. "There are definitely some things I need from home if we are finally going to meet someone famous."


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

They returned through the well in the early afternoon of the next day. Inuyasha, with a purpose and possible fight in the offing, was in high spirits. But Kagome took a dim view of traveling at such a forced pace and was ready to punch Inuyasha in the head for complaining about comfort stops. She had thought they had settled that little issue in her favor some time ago but Inuyasha appeared to have forgotten.

She stomped out of the well house making a beeline to her mother's kitchen and a proper bathroom only to nearly break her neck stumbling over Jaken's legs. He was in human form sitting in a folding lawn chair just outside of the well door.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded and dumped her pack onto his lap causing him to grunt. She continued on her course without waiting for an answer.

Inuyasha followed behind her in human form and paused to look down at the figure in the lawn chair. "What are you doing here?" he inquired with mild interest.

"Waiting for you," Jaken wheezed. "Sesshoumaru-Sama wants to see you and said I couldn't return without you."

"Good, because I want to see him." He started to walk off, feeling in the front of his suikan for his sunglasses. He stopped and turned, his betraying eyes concealed behind dark lenses, "Well? Are you coming? Bring Kagome's bag, we can drop it off at the house."

Cursing, Jaken struggled to his feet, hefting the heavy bag. "What does that girl pack in this thing, rocks?"

000000000000000000

Kagome entered the kitchen in a rush noting only vaguely her mother's absence. Following a long-ingrained habit, she grabbed for the stack of mail left on the table to run through while she was in the bathroom. Inuyasha was so impatient at times that she couldn't ever be sure of any other chance to look at it in search of letters to her. She did still get mail at times, and magazines and catalogues she might want to bring back with her.

She sighed as she riffled through the pile; Mama, Mama, Occupant, Souta's 'Jump' magazine, 'Shrine News', bills, Ministry of Education to the parent or guardian of Nishigawa Kagome...the envelope was thick and already open...

Inuyasha was in the kitchen with his head in the refrigerator by the time she came out. Jaken was slumped at the table almost obscured from view by the yellow bulk of her backpack. She tried to speak but couldn't find her voice for a moment.

"Oi, Kagome, where does your mother hide those little packets of shrimp paste?"

She dropped the mail carelessly on the table except for the letter she held in her hand and cleared her throat, "They're not in there, Inuyasha. She keeps them in the cupboard by the sink."

He withdrew his head from the refrigerator and looked sharply at her. "You sound funny, are you all right?"

"I...don't know. All this time and all those crazy stories from Jii-Chan. I actually managed to pass classes without showing up." She flapped the sheets of paper in her hand, growing more distressed by the moment. "All that worry and effort. I tried, I tried to manage things. And now they send me this? What is wrong with them?"

She thrust the papers in Inuyasha's face, causing him to recoil before he took them from her. Kagome spun around and pointed at Jaken, "Don't you laugh! Don't you dare say a word. I better not find out you are at the bottom of all this." With that she dumped herself down in a chair at the table and crossed her arms, her fingers digging into her biceps, to stare stonily at the wall.

Jaken gurgled quietly in what he hoped was a soothing manner and looked over at Inuyasha who was staring at the papers in his hand with a mixed expression of confusion and dawning ire. His lips tightened and Jaken was considering making a run for his own safety when Inuyasha burst out with, "Why do I see my family name and questionable moral values together on this piece of paper? What is this, Kagome?"

Kagome slapped her hands down on the table and jumped up, "Can't you tell, Inuyasha? See this Kanji here?" She stabbed her finger at the page and he stared down at it. "I've been expelled!" She redirected her finger at him and then back at her own self, "You and I, we are immoral people. I'm not fit to be in high school because I married you!"

Inuyasha snatched the paper back and growled at her before withdrawing to lean against the counter. He read the pages from the beginning to the end, pausing to sound out the text when it went phonetic on him. He got the sense of it in a few minutes though and calmed down considerably, "So you were right in what you said before we got married: that stupid school doesn't like married students."

"It's not just the school. It's the whole education system."

He shrugged his shoulders and tossed the pages aside, "Fuck 'em then. You shouldn't give a shit. You did everything right."

With a rush, Kagome was in his arms, her face pressed against his chest. He put his cheek on top of her head and rubbed her shoulders but, Jaken could swear, there was a trace of a smirk on his lips as he rocked her in his arms and made soothing noises.

Under cover of the rocking and murmuring, Jaken ducked down and collected the scattered pages from where they had fallen and ran a sapient over the contents of the first couple. He could see why Inuyasha had been annoyed, the verbiage was official and none too complimentary in tone.

After a few moments Inuyasha spoke again, "OK now, Kagome, don't cry."

"I'm not crying."

He made an exasperated sound.

"No, really, I'm not." She leaned back and showed him her face. He made no remark on the traces of tears upon her cheeks. "In a way, I'm kind of relieved," she continued. "It's been hanging over my head for so long, what with the absences and all, I'm sort of surprised they didn't do it sooner. But did they have to be so mean about it? And make me out to be such a total whore?"

Inuyasha began to frown again, "Yeah, that, I don't like."

Jaken cleared his throat hurriedly before the whole thing got going again, "That's all very unpleasant and perhaps such an important person as Sesshoumaru-Sama can get to the bottom of this difficult issue."

"Spit it out, Toad."

"The name is Jaken."

"I know your name. Why does Sesshoumaru want to speak with me?"

"I thought you said you wanted to speak with him!"

Inuyasha released Kagome and stepped over to stand just a bit too close for politeness to the humanized youkai, forcing Jaken to crane his neck to look up at him, "I wanted to speak to my brother, yes. That is why I returned early. I also want to know what you are covering up, you shit."

Jaken's neck was starting to hurt from the acute angle but Inuyasha had backed him up against the kitchen table and he could not step away without a considerable loss of face. He turned a bit pink, "You will find out when you speak to Sesshoumaru-Sama."

"So you are covering something up. You always do."

"I am not..." Jaken began hotly but Kagome's voice intervened. She had picked up the pile of papers again and was flipping through them in a restless manner.

"Jaken, you've been here at the shrine for a little bit. Do you know where my mother went today? I think I should talk to her before I do anything else."

Taken off-guard Jaken responded with the truth, "Oh, she's probably over at Sesshoumaru-Sama's apartment. She's been over there quite a lot the last couple of days."

"What?" Inuyasha and Kagome shouted in chorus.

Jaken, recognizing a tactical error when he saw one, quailed.

0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.00.

"Check. Checkmate in six moves." Sesshoumaru's voice was a study in indifference.

Higurashi-San leaned forward and considered the board. She smiled briefly and sat back, "Ah, 'that is an ending that is extremely difficult for any player to win who has not mastered the theory of it.'"

"Do you care to place a wager upon it?"

"What? When I see your strategy? Would that be fair?"

The front door of the apartment burst open with a crash.

"Mama, are you here? Could I talk with you please?"

"Sesshoumaru!"

"Sama, I could not stop them!"

Sesshoumaru sighed in the briefest of whispers of sound and sat back. Higurashi-San took a somewhat more active interest, looking over with a slight frown at the doorway to the living room as she quietly completed her move, taking out his bishop.

Kagome jittered up, papers in hand and paused, looking down at the game and up at her mother and the youkai, whom she had only just begun to trust, on the other side of the board. She scrolled the empty manila envelope between her fingers and passed the contents of it over to her Mother where she sat at the corner of the big dining table on the dais in Sesshoumaru's capacious apartment in Roppongi Hills.

"Mama, these papers."

"I know what they are, Kagome-Chan and was ready to talk to you about them when you next got home." She looked over the rather crumpled pages briefly before dropping them aside. "It all depends on how you want to handle it. I attended several meetings on your behalf and got nowhere."

"I...They totally insulted me..."

Sesshoumaru interposed, "We can force them to send you a letter of apology, if that is what you wish."

"I..." Kagome was confused.

Inuyasha used her hesitation to bring up his own concern, "Sesshoumaru, what do you know of the talk that's been going on about us?"

Sesshoumaru frowned, "The talk has all been about you."

"I didn't kill all those daemons, did I?" Inuyasha swung his head around and glared at Jaken for support.

Jaken clutched his hat and desperately wished he was somewhere else, "You were always killing daemons, Sama."

Inuyasha flicked his fingers dismissively, "Well, of course I did, I had to."

Sesshoumaru raised his brows. "Jaken," he intoned, "you pay my brother much respect."

Inuyasha made an impatient sound as Jaken effaced himself towards the kitchen, "Sesshoumaru, everybody back home is saying I did all of Naraku's crimes. There are murders of youkai being committed by humans and I'm being held to blame."

"Humans murdering youkai? Do you have proof of this?"

"I do," with that, Inuyasha fished deeply into the front of his jacket and tossed down a partially mummified hand sporting the claws of a cat youkai.

"Eeww, you were carrying that the whole time?"

"Kagome, of course I was, how else was I.."

"That is so, just... Eew, no wonder you were smelling funny."

Inuyasha colored and bristled but Higurashi-San was delicately holding her nose and using the tip of her king piece to knock the gristly object away from the chessboard, "Really, Inuyasha."

Sesshoumaru showed no such compunction and plucked up the severed hand for a closer examination, "This was cooked and cut off afterwards." He plucked at the remains of the wrist, "Oni-binding spell threads from Tibet. Clearly human-make."

Inuyasha extended his hand, "I know that. So, there is talk?"

"Don't think you are getting this back, little brother."

"You fuck-head. Fine, keep it. Bet you I can find another if I go back and look."

"Fool, this is evidence. There are papers in my study."

"So?" Inuyasha waggled his empty hand. "Give that back then."

"Please don't," Kagome said unhappily, "Inuyasha, they really will think your are behind it if you keep such a thing. It's just suspicious."

"It smells terribly," Higurashi-San said firmly. "There must be some decent way of getting rid of it."

Sesshoumaru flicked her a look and raised his voice slightly, "Jaken."

The sliders to the pass-through from the kitchen promptly opened, "Sesshoumaru-Sama."

"Come out and take this and put it on ice," Sesshoumaru held out the hand without bothering to look around.

"Not in your freezer, Sesshoumaru, that would ruin the unit!" Higurashi-San was shocked but adamant.

"See to it, Jaken, as the lady says," Sesshoumaru sounded indifferent.

Inuyasha sighed in irritation, "Fine, keep it. What papers?"

"The copies are on my desk. Take only the pink copies; they are for you."

Inuyasha started towards the study door.

"Kagome, go with him, make sure he gets the right thing."

"Mama? Sure, I'll get them, but what about my school?"

"I think this might just count a little more dear. Don't worry; it will all work out."

Within moments, there was an almighty crash from the study and Inuyasha's voice bellowing, "What the fuck!"

They could hear Kagome's voice expostulating, "Inuyasha not here, we'll go back to the shrine and read over them slowly, there must be some mistake!"

"Like hell there is!"

They could hear Kagome dropping her voice, "What about Jukuryo-San. That's his stamp on the copies; let's ask him."

Within an instant, Inuyasha was back out in the living room, Kagome in tow by a wrist and a bundle of pink papers balled up in his other hand. He paused as he hauled Kagome past the table, "We're going to Jukuryo."

"Take Jaken with you."

"What?" That brought Inuyasha up short for an instant as he scanned the couple at the table. Kagome's eyes were still turned back as she was swept out of the room to the accompanying shout of, "Jaken! You are coming with us!"

The apartment door slammed with a crash upon Jaken's startled protests.

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Higurashi-San insisted on doing the dishes. It seemed crazy to her. Here she was in on of the highest rent districts in Tokyo in an apartment the kitchen of which was easily twice the size of the old kitchen at the shrine, that roomy old kitchen with its yellow walls and echoing plumbing. And she was with a man who certainly wasn't human. She sniffed a bit and turned away from her thoughts to busy herself with the few bowls on his kitchen counter, moving the richly colored earthenware in her hands under a stream of water in the sink.

"Woman, I let my servants do my dishes; it keeps them busy."

Sesshoumaru was directly behind her and reached past her hip to place his hand on the edge of the bowl where she held it under the running water. She looked down at their hands entwined under the flow of running water and didn't move. His fingers were very little less slender than her own, the nails long and almond-shaped, like those of an ancient prince. The only true incongruence was that of the tendril of color wrapped about the wrist.

He moved to take the bowl from her, "I'll hold it as you scrub then, the water is pleasant."

His voice rumbled and yet still hit a tenor note. She could feel the brush of his clothes, the warmth of his skin. She suffered from a fleeting wish to turn to him and do something shocking; expose herself, maybe, or proposition him.

She fumbled the rag a bit and wiped the bowl with a couple of strokes. But her attention to the task was poor and he twitched the rag from her hand, laying it aside on the counter.

"Leave it, woman," he insisted again and tugged at her wrist. She turned to his pull but kept her face down-turned, searching for her own balance. "Woman."

"Perhaps I'm a bit tired and I'm misinterpreting things," she spoke uncomfortably. "No doubt Kagome is still upset. I should go and be with her."

"She is with the one she wants to be with the most right now. She does not need her mother to hold her hand anymore."

"Souta still does, he still needs me." It was a feeble protest and they both knew it.

"Souta can be very well entertained by others. That is one thing that can be easily managed. What I am interested in is you." He allowed his hand holding her wrist to slide up her arm as he reached to turn off the faucet. She watched it as if she were watching the graceful advance of a snake.

"I wish you weren't."

He turned his head, "Why? What is there to fear?"

That brought her eyes up to his. She stood for a moment looking at him, measuring. "I am a human woman, no longer truly young. Our association will create confusion and difficult feelings all around. I am not sure where my responsibilities lie." She paused then, frowning at him. He was smiling, just a bit.

"Why do you frown, Shrine Woman?"

"Because you smile."

His smile at that became broader, more predatory, and she would have stepped back had he not caught her chin and kissed her on the lips. She was frozen in time, his mouth unexpectedly warm on hers. His lips firm and yet gentle. A quick buss and nip from him and their mouths were open, tongues like butterflies. He drew back a bit at last and Higurashi-San found herself following his movement, eager for more. His smile grew into an outright grin.

"You said will." He drew out the word 'will' with emphasis. "My Shrine Woman does not lie. You cannot deny me now."

Her eyes widened and she gave a faint exclamation as she realized he had her cornered in more ways than one.

His grip wasn't painful. Not ungentle, but 'no' wasn't going to be the answer either, really, when all was said and done. But what was being said? He murmured, "My Shrine Woman," as if she were a prize before laying his mouth over hers again and she was caught.

But then, so was he. Sesshoumaru didn't know quite what he expected but the woman in his arms was like nothing he had ever held before. Her mouth almost burned him, her hands were tentative and she pulled away from his kiss stiffly with a shove at his shoulders.

"You're afraid of me," he said.

She turned her face away, blushing, "I've never done this before."

"Oh, come now. Although I pride myself in my ability to terrify humans I do believe you are a mother of two."

She licked her lips and dried her hands on a towel. "Please do not laugh at me. You know what I mean. This will never work."

"I'll never tell and you don't seem to be running for the door. Perhaps I should ravish you." She stared back at him with narrowed eyes and a set mouth. He sighed a little and stepped towards her, "Not running yet, Shrine Woman?"

"Should I?"

"Maybe, but I think you'll like it."

She smiled and shook her head but he drew her to him and kissed her again. She found herself sliding into his arms, hands pulling at the fabric at his shoulders even as she felt him gently tugging at the buttons down the back of her dress. One by one they popped open and she could feel the cool air along her spine before the warmth of his hand replaced all that. He was pressing at her spine, guiding her out of the kitchen.

"Where are we going!" Her voice trembled a bit.

"You have to ask?" He sounded amused. Within moments they were in his room, large bed on a platform, city lights twinkling outside the window, "Shrine Woman." His voice was husky, " I think you should help me undress."

Her hands seemed to move on their own, revealing the smooth-rolling planes of muscle and bone that defined him. His shin was smooth and pale in the shadows, a heat emanating from it that surely would melt snow. His height leaned over her, the curtain of his hair nearly cloaking how much larger he was than her. He gave the faint rumble of a chuckle as she ran her hands over him changing to a mutter as she reached certain places.

Her dress was falling off her shoulders, sliding to the floor. He helped it, pulling slowly down as it caught at her hips. She dropped her head and blushed, she was slender enough but she could not be fine enough for him. She felt the flush creeping over her skin under his gaze. What if he turned away?

He gave a low laugh and swept her up to follow her on to the bed. Her dress made a rapid descent to her ankles and she had to kick a bit to get it off. He laughed again and knelt up over her, dealing with the undergarments with ruthless speed. She was startled and tensed at the exquisite stretch and burn of his entry, as if, after so many years she was virgin again.

He paused, "I do not mean to hurt you."

"It's all right, I don't care." She slid a hand up over his shoulder, beneath his hair. He shifted in response, on his elbows over her and kissed her, forcing his way into her mouth even as he invaded below. She let him, opening wide in both ways to let him take all he wished.

That seemed to be the right thing as he made a sound-a low inhuman moan of need and she clutched at him as he moved within her. At the peak, he cried out hoarsely, clutching at her hips in his turn and straining against her in a way that made her body clench against his in a completely visceral reaction. She could scarcely breathe, let alone speak when it was done and was oddly surprised and touched to find him trembling and surging against her body again before he pulled her back over the edge with him.

... There was no going back after that.


End file.
